
Qass_£ ^ VLl 
Book ^"^7 



THe 



^F'URious Letters 



/ITTRIPUTED TO 



\)(f/l5timQT0N. 



»u4rvv 



THE 



4 



SPURIOUS LETTERS 



ATTRIBUTED TO 

WASHINGTON 



A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 



WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD. 



xC,- 



BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

privately printed. 

i88q. 




E3U: 
■ 11 



Five hundred copies printed. 



/Z- ZffS' 



CONTENTS, 



PAGK 

Preface 5 

Bibliography 38 

The Spurious Letters. 

To Lund Washington, June 12, 1776 45 

To John Parke Custis, June 18, 1776 59 

To the Hon. Lady Washington, June 24, 1776 69 

To Mr. Lund Washington, July 16, 1776 80 

To Mr. Lund Washington, July 8, 1776 87 

To Mr. Lund Washington, July 15, 1776 98 

To Mr. Lund Washington, July 22, 1776 112 

The Carey Coi,i,ection of "Official Letters." 

John Carey 123 

Jefferson to Carey 125 

Carey to Jefferson 125 

Carey to Washington 127 

Carey to Jefferson 128 

Carey to Washington 129 

Carey to Washington 135 

Jefferson to Carey 136 

How Washington became Commander-in-Chief ... 138 

Life and Character of General Washington, 1778 . 148 

Character of Washington, 1779 154 

The Aurora's Farewell to Washington, 1797 .... 157 

Index 161 

(iii) 



PREFACE. 



In May or June, 1777, there appeared in lyondon a 
pamphlet, bearing the imprint of J. Bew, a bookseller 
in Paternoster Row, purporting to contain certain 
letters of Washington written in 1776, to his friends 
and relatives in Virginia. There can be little doubt 
that the issue was calculated to attain some end. 
Were the letters genuine, they would be of interest as 
showing that Washington was playing a part as com- 
mander in chief of the American army, leading a cause 
for which he had little or no sympathy, and under the 
burden and discouragement of which, even at this 
early period of the war, he was becoming disheartened, 
and longing for a full reconciliation with the mother 
country. A two-fold object could be accomplished, 
were this the case. It would strengthen the war party 
in England, give aid to the ministry to push the issue, 
and endorse the idea that the contest would be speedily 
terminated by the complete overthrow of the rebellion 
in the Colonies, and the reestablishment of the authority 
of king and Parliament in those dependencies. From 
this standpoint it would not be very strange if some 
one connected with the government party had had 
some agency in publishing, if not in preparing, the 
2 (5) letters; 



letters ; but from another, private pique may have sug- 
gested the idea. For on reaching America, the letters 
might discredit Washington with the American army 
and the people, and by occasioning suspicions of his 
integrity, introduce dissensions into the councils of 
the "rebels." 

The compiler of the letters was certainly very shrewd 
in preparing his preface explaining the manner in 
which he obtained, or rather was supposed to haye ob- 
tained, the manuscripts. He modestly called himself 
the "editor," and paved the way for obtaining the cre- 
dence of the public as follows : 

The public will naturally be inquisitive as to the 
authenticity of the following letters. For everything 
else they will speak for themselves : and, for their gen- 
uineness, the editor conceives himself concerned to give 
only such vouchers as he himself has received. By 
the last pacquet he was favored with a letter from a 
friend, now serving in a loyal corps under Brigadier- 
General Delancey, of New York, of which he here sub- 
joins a faithful extract. Pleased with the communica- 
tion himself (and, as he is not ashamed to add, in- 
structed by it), he could not be easy to withhold it 
from the public at large: inasmuch as, in his judg- 
ment, it exhibits a fairer and fuller view of American 
politics than the world has seen. 

"Among the prisoners at Fort Lee, I espied a 
mulatto fellow, whom I thought I recollected, and who 
confirmed my conjectures by gazing very earnestly at 
me. I asked him if he knew me. At first, he was 
unwilling to own it ; but, when he was about to be 
carried off, thinking, I suppose, that I might perhaps 
be of some service to him, he came and told me that 
he was Billy, and the old servant of General Washing- 
ton. He had been left there on account of an indispo- 
sition 



sition which prevented his attending his master. I 
asked him a great many questions, as you may sup- 
pose ; but found very little satisfaction in his answers. 
At last, however, he told me that he had a small port- 
manteau of his master's ; of which, when he found that 
he must be put into confinement, he intreated my care. 
It contained only a few stockings and shirts ; and I 
could see nothing worth my care, except an almanack, 
in which he had kept a journal, or diary, of his pro- 
ceedings since his first coming to New York : there 
were also two letters from his lady, one from Mr. Custis, 
and some pretty long ones from a Mr. Lund Washing- 
ton, and in the same bundle with them, the first 
draughts, or foul copies, of answers to them. I read 
these with avidity ; and being highly entertained with 
them, have shewn them to several of my friends, who 
all agree with me, that he is a very different character 
from what they had supposed him. I never knew a 
man so much to be pitied. If I remember right, you 
have seen, and have some knowledge of him ; but it is 
impossible you could form so just an estimate as these 
letters will give you. They contain also, as you will 
find, a deal of information not to be had anywhere 
else : I assure myself, therefore, you will thank me for 
the trouble I have taken in copying them for your 
perusal." 

Fort lyce was taken on November 20th, 1776, the 
American army leaving so hastily as to lose the 
"whole of the cannon that were at the fort, except 
two twelve-pounders, and a great deal of baggage, 
between two and three hundred tents, about a thousand 
barrels of flour, and other stores in the quartermaster's 
department. This loss was inevitable." — Washrngton 
to the President of Congress, 21 November, 1776. In 
such a hasty retreat it was very reasonable to suppose 

that 



8 

that some of the sick might have been left behind in 
the confusion, and so "Billy " was taken. 

Washington did have a ver>'' trusted "mulatto man " 
calling himself William l^ee, and probably the boj' who 
was purchased of Mar^^ Lee in 176S for ^61.15. The 
name William, a verj' common one among slaves, is 
entered each year among the tithables returned by 
Washington, and alwaj-s among the house ser^'ants. 
He was doubtless the successor of Washington's old 
^ body serv'aut, Jolm Bishop, said to have been Brad- 
dock's servant, and John Alton. Billy or William was 
so highly appreciated bj- Washington, that in making 
his will, he gave him the alternative of "immediate 
freedom, or, if he should prefer it, (on account of the 
accidents which have befallen him, and which have 
rendered him incapable of walking, or of any active 
employment,) to remain in the situation he now is . . 
in either case, however, I allow him an aniuiity of 
thirty dollars, during his natural life, which shall be 
independent of the victuals and clothes he has been 
accustomed to receive, if he chooses the last alterna- 
tive; but in full with his freedom, if he prefers the 
first ; and this I give him, as a testimony of my sense 
of his attachment to me, and for his faithful ser\'ices 
during the Revolutionary war." So that in the 
preface at least, the editor apparently takes the public 
into his confidence, leaves nothing of his knowledge 
untold, and by a judicious assortment of names and 
events, weaves a story that might have deceived an 
intimate friend of Washington, so correct does it ap- 
pear. 

It 



f Th/0^-^^-^ '^*^ 



It should be remembered that the English public had 
almost none of the means of checking the statements 
made in the letters themselves, where the fabricator so 
often makes gross inaccuracies of statement, impossible 
combinations of events, and threads together in fantas- 
tic array a narrative that will not bear the slightest 
investigation. For example, it is now known that 
about the middle of August, 1776, Washington sent to 
Philadelphia all his papers,, lest in the campaign near 
New York they should fall into the hands of the enemy. 
Is it likely that he and Billy would be carrjdng with 
them in November private letters that were written four 
or five months previously, and especially when no part of 
the public papers were returned to him until the end of 
December? Moreover, the English public had been 
crammed for some time with rumors and tales that 
would seem to bear out much that the writer states of 
the dissatisfaction, amounting almost to disgust, of 
Washington with his position. II was a common thing 
to make him a prisoner, or even to kill him in a battle ; 
so also, to vary the tale, he was made to quarrel vi^ith 
Congress, with his generals, and, in a pet, to throw up 
his commission. The readers of the newspapers of the 
day were thus in a measure prepared for just such sen- 
timents as these spurious letters contained. Yet there 
is no evidence that their publication created au}^ stir, or 
even attracted much attention. I can find no mention 
of them in any memoir or collection of letters ; and were 
it not for the notices of the pamphlet in the magazines, 
the very existence of the publication might be doubted. 
The Mo7ithly Reviezv merely said : "We cannot look 

upon 



lO 

upon these letters as genuine ; but we must pronounce 
them well written : they would do great honor to Gen- 
eral Washington, could his claim to them be indisput- 
ably established." The Critical Review expressed the 
same doubt of their reliability. " It is difficult to de- 
termine their authenticity from any intrinsic evidence. 
They contain no facts of a private nature, and they 
discover not only sentiment, but a correctness of com- 
position. ' ' And a third magazine the Town and Country 
Magazine, devoted only two lines to them : ' ' These 
letters are well written, but whether genuine or not we 
will not pretend to determine." The letter to Mrs. 
Washington was printed in the Gentleman' s Magazine, 
in 1777, as "an intercepted original letter from Gen. 
Washington to his lady, having every internal mark of 
authenticity." It also appeared in the London Chron- 
icle, 30 December, 1776, and with the head line " For 
the London Chronicled Instead of being addressed to 
"The Hon. Lady Washington," as in Bew, both the 
Gentleman'' s Magazine and the London Chronicle say 
"Mrs. Washington, etc." The publisher, John Bew, 
died April 12th, 1793, and was then a bookseller in 
Paternoster Row. He was the Tory publisher, and is- 
sued the Political Magazine. 

It was not long before these letters reached America, 
where they were reprinted, presumably by the Tories, 
who hoped by such means to discredit Washington 
with the army and people. The letter to Mrs. Wash- 
ington was printed as a broadside, and again as "an 
intercepted letter from General Washington to his lady 
in the year 1776." Mr. Hildeburn, in his valuable 

' ' Issues 



11 

" Issues of the Press of Pennsylvania," credits the issue 
of this single folio sheet to Philadelphia ; but I am 
inclined to believe that it was printed in New York. 
Washington wrote to Richard Henry L,ee, February 
15th, 177^ " I have seen a letter published in a hand- 
bill at New York, and extracts from it republished in 
a Philadelphia paper, said to' be from me to Mrs. 
"Washington, not one word of which did I ever write." 
Certainly James Rivington would have been as likely 
as any one to give circulation to such a letter, and he 
seized upon the others, to publish them in his Royal 
Gazette. 

The letter to I^und Washington, and the introduc- 
tion of the forger, were published in the Gazette of Feb- 
ruary- 14th, 1778 ; in the issue of the 21st may be found 
the letter to John Parke Custis, with an explanatory 
note that " Mr. Custis is the son of Mr. Washington's 
lady, by a former husband;" in the issue of the 28th, 
no less than three to lyund Washington were printed, 
but by some error the dates became altered from the 
Bew edition. What is dated the i6th July, 1776, in 
Bew, became the 8th in Rivington, and the 8th of Bew, 
became the i6th in Rivington. On March 7th, 1778, 
the letter to I^und Washington of July 22d, 1776, was 
published, closing the series, as that to Mrs. Washing- 
ton does not seem to have appeared in the columns of 
the Gazette. 

It was three weeks before the letters reached Phila- 
delphia to be copied from the Royal New York Gazette 
(for in those days editors were quite scrupulous in giving 
credit to those papers from which they borrowed, 

although 



U 



12 

although little else was done than to borrow from out- 
side sources) into the Royal Pennsylvania Gazette, 
published by James Robertson, who had formerly, in 
association with the poet John Trumbull, published 
the Norwich Packet, at Norwich, Connecticut. The 
introduction to the letters, and that to L,und of 12 
June, 1776, was printed in the Royal Pennsylvania 
Gazette of Fridaj^ 6 March, 1778. The issue of March 
17 th contained the letter to Custis, and the three letters 
to lyund, dated respectively, 8th, i6th and 15th of 
July, On March 14th, the Philadelphia Ledge?', a paper 
long suspected of being in the British influence, whose 
publisher, James Humphreys, Jr., had been driven from 
the place in November, 1776. to return with the 
British occupation, began the series in the usual way, 
with the introduction and the letter to I^und of June 
12th; on the 2ist, the letter to Custis, and two to 
Lund — ^July 8tli and July i6th — appeared ; and on 
March 25th, the- letter of July 15th to L,und. Not 
until the 7th of April does the letter to Mrs. Washing- 
ton seem to have been made public, when Robertson 
reproduced it in the columns of his Gazette.^ It is 
hardly likely, therefore, that the handbill could have 
originated in Philadelphia, and have circulated for so 
long a period as to have given rise to Washington's 
letter of February 15th, just quoted. 

Almost immediately, and from Rivington's type, the 
columns being merely cut up into pages, the entire 
number were collected in a little paiuphlet. A fac 

* I owe these facts conceruing the dates of the Philadelphia issues to my 
brother, Paul lyCicester Ford. 

simile 



I.^ 



simile of the title page is given on the opposite 
page. That it was Rivington's issue is shown by 
the error of dates which remained uncorrected in the 
pamphlet, by the style of type, and by the announce- 
ment of its issue in the Gazette oi March 14, 1778, — 
''This day are published, Price 2s. LETTERS from 
General Washington to several of his friends in the 
year 1776," etc. In a few weeks, the advertisement 
was changed so as to read "LETTERS from MR. 
WASHINGTON to his wife, his Son-in-law, and Mr. 
Lund Washington; in which," etc. And to swell the 
pamphlet the letter of Parson Duche to Washington, 
which had been printed in the Royal Gazette on the 
29th of November, 1777, and Col. Parke's reply, were 
added, together with the letter to Mrs. Washington. 

Mr. Hildeburn credits this pamphlet to Philadelphia, 
but we can again refer to Washington as authority that 
it was from New York that at least one, and perhaps 
the only publication emanated. In 1788, while Ma- 
thew Carey was publishing the A?7ierican Musetwi, he 
obtained an extract of a letter purporting to have been 
written by the President, and which he proposed to 
reprint in the columns of his magazine. Before doing 
so, he submitted the matter to Washington, and called 
out the following reply : 

Mount Vernon, 27 October 1788. 

Sir : In reply to yours of the 20th of this month, I 
have to observe, that the fragment of the letter in 
question, supposed to be written by me, is spurious, 
and that there was a pamphlet containing a great 
many letters of the same description published in New 
York at the same time. It should farther be observed, 

that 



that this publication was made soou after several of my 
letters were reallj- intercepted with the mail, and that- 
the pretended copies of them not only blended many 
truths with many falsehoods, but were evidently written 
by some person exceedingh- well acquainted with 
my domestic and general concerns. Advantage was 
adroitly taken of this knowledge to give the greater 
appearance of probability- to the fiction. 

From these circumstances 5-011 will perceive, sir, how 
prudenth^ you have acted in making an application to 
me previous to your meditated republication. Other- 
wise I might have found myself under the necessity of 
denj-ing that they were genuine, from an apprehension 
that being thus preserved in a manner under my eye 
and with m}- acquiescence, the}^ must have assumed the 
seal of veracity in the estimation of posterity. For, 
whatever credit some of these letters might be thought 
to have done to ni}^ literary- or political talents, I cer- 
tainly cannot choose to avail mj-self of the imposition. 
With due regard, I am, etc. 

It was either this pamphlet, or a copy of the English 
issue, that reached the hands of Richard Henry Lee. 
"The arts of the enemies of America are endless, but 
all wicked as they are various. Among other tricks 
they have forged a pamphlet of letters, entitled ' Letters 
\/ from General Washington to several of his friends in 
1776.' The design of the forger is evident, and no 
doubt it gained him a good beefsteak from his masters. 
I would send yow this pamphlet, if it were not too 
bulky for the post, as it might serve to amuse your 
leisure hours during the inaction of winter."* This 
was apparentl}' the first intimation that Washington 
received of such letters being in currencj-, and men- 

• Quoted in Sparks, IVriiings of Washington, v. 237. 

tioning 



15 

tioning the broadside issue of the supposed missive to 
Mrs. Washington, he replied: "Those contained in 
the pamphlet you speak of are, I presume, equally 
genuine, and perhaps written by the same author. I 
should be glad, however, to see and examine the 
texture of them, if a favorable opportunity to send 
them should present."* It was not until May that 
Lee found such an opportunity, and he added, "'Tis 
among the pitiful arts of our enemies to endeavor at 
sowing dissentions among the friends of liberty and 
their country. With me, such tricks can never avail. " f 
A cursory examination enabled Washington to re- 
cognize the falsity of the letters, and at the same time 
the skill with which they had been pieced together. 

' ' These letters are written with a great deal of art. 
The intermixture of so many family circumstances 
(which, by the by, want foundation in truth) gives an 
air of plausibility, which renders the villainy greater; 
as the whole is a contrivance to answer the most dia- 
bolical purposes. Who the author of them is, I know 
not. From information, or acquaintance, he must have 
had some knowledge of the component parts of my 
family ; but he has most egregiously mistaken facts in 
several instances. The design of his labors is as clear 
as the sun in its meridian brightness." X To Landon 
Carter — the same who is mentioned in one of the forged 
letters — he wrote : 

I am sorry it is not in my power to furnish you with 

♦ Washington to Lee, 15 February, 1778. 
f Lee io f Washington, 6 May, 1778, 
X IVashington to Lee, 25 May, 1778. 

the 



i6 

the letter required, which, with many others, was 
written to show, that I was an enemy to independence, 
and with a view to create distrust and jealousy. I 
never had but one of them, and that I sent to Mrs. 
Washington, to let her see what obliging folks there 
are in the world. As a sample of it, I inclose to you 
another letter, written for me to Mr. Custis, of the 
same tenor, which I happen to have by me. It is 
no easy matter to decide, whether the villainy or ar- 
tifice of these letters is greatest. They were written by 
a person who had some knowledge or information of 
the component parts of my family, and yet they are so 
deficient in circumstances and facts, as to run into 
egregious misrepresentations of both.* 

But the matter did not rest here, for again were the 
letters to be laid before the public as historical material. 
A Mr. John Carey had obtained Washington's sanction 
for an English editon of his letters to the Continental 
Congress during the Revolution, and in 1795 two vol- 
umes were published in London, as the beginning of a 
collection of "American State Papers, being a collec- 
tion of original and authentic Documents relative to 
the War between the United States and Great Britain. 

* Letter of 30th May, 1778. 

Laudon Carter had written: " My dear General can oblige much with a 
copy of the famous printed letter that was forg'd for him to his lady in Phil- 
adelphia, published in one of the papers, June 24, 1776. I have never seen 
or heard of it, till y[ quondam ade de camp informed me of it this March. 
A curious performance I understand it to be ; and so replete with youi 
domestic occurences, that it deservedly lodges a suspicion of its inventor 
somewhere near to you. Your local country are unanimously devoted to yr 
protection. And let Gates, Mifflin, and the Hy — te Conway, raise what dis- 
turbances they can think of you have an asilum here in everj' honest breast. 
For my part I do so abominate ingratitude, to so much virtue as yours in 
Particular, that had not a grand infirmity prevented it, I should long ago 
have been in Congress to have died inch by inch for you." — A/S. letter. 

Published 



17 

Published by special permission."* Although the 
work was never completed, for the volumes contained 
the correspondence only to the end of 1778, it was re- 
published in America in the same year (1795). A 
Boston edition bears this date on its title page.f and 
a second edition was printed in 1796. In the latter 
year a New York issue was apparently made, but it 
was really published by September, 17Q5. The New 
York Daily Adverh'ser o{ September 10, 1795, announced 
the two volumes as published on that day, but without 
the name of the printer or publisher. The announce- 
ment continued : 

"Respecting the source from which the following 
letters have been drawn, and the grounds on which 
the reader expects to rest his belief of their authenticity, 
it may be sufficient to inform him, that permission was 
obtained from the proper authority to transcribe, from 
the original papers preserved in the Secretary of State's 
Office, in Philadelphia, these and sundry other docu- 
ments, relating to the contest between Great Britain 
and the United States. 

"The reasoning, philosophic reader will, from a 
perusal of these letters, be able to explore the secret 
springs of action during the contest, to trace events to 
their remote and latent causes, and to discover and ex- 
amine the subordinate and collateral circumstances (oft 

*I give in an appendix some of Carey's letters concerning this collection. 

t " A clear refutation of the calumny against the President of the United 
States, on the subject of Independence, may be seen in the volumes of Offi- 
cial r,etters to Congress, just now published. " Columbia Centinel, Boston. 
2 September, 1795. 

trifling 



i8 

trifling in appearance, and generally overlooked by the 
vulgar eye) whicli in the struggle of contending nations 
give a preponderanc}'- to the one or the other scale. 
They contain a history of the leading events of the 
war, and the heroism, love of country and many amia- 
ble virtues which are conspicuous in almost every letter, 
would, were it possible, tend to endear the name and 
memory of the author, to his grateful country, and the 
world of mankind. ' ' 

A few days later the same sheet announced that the 
volume was to be sold by "J. Rivington, at No. 156, 
in Pearl street," and Rivington's advertisement con- 
tained the paragraphs just quoted. The Mi7ierva stated 
that these letters, "highly interesting and entertain- 
ing, ' ' could be had at its olGEice, for 20.?. , the English edi- 
tion selling for four dollars. The editor of that news- 
paper, Noah Webster, wrote of these volumes on the 
i6th: 

' ' The men who abuse our Chief Magistrate or attempt 
to detach from his administration the confidence of the 
American public, ought to read his letters to Congress, 
now published in two volumes, and of which we have 
a few copies at the office of this paper. 

' ' No man who reviews his arduous struggles, during 
the late war, with difficulties almost insurmountable ; 
raw troops, without discipline, clothing, arms, powder 
or other militarj'^ apparatus; a discontented, fickle 
militia, without order or subordination ; an empty 
military chest ; state jealousies, and innumerable 
tories — I say no man, who reads his letters in which 

all 



19 

all these difficulties are most feelingly described, can 
readily withdraw his attachment from this firm, un- 
shaken patriot, or willingly abandon himself to a 
suspicion of his integrity." 

The publication was made at a very critical period 
of our history, as the whole country was in a ferment 
over the Jay treaty. This document had been divulged 
by the treachery of a Senator — Mason — and had stirred 
the political factions of the nation as they had never 
been stirred before. Washington had signed the 
treaty, and the French party denounced him as an 
enemy to the country, a traitor to liberty, a political 
hypocrite — in fact, the embodiment of all that was 
mischievous, dangerous and wicked. The opposition 
opened upon him the flood-gates of abuse and libel, in 
a manner that astonished and shocked many of Wash- 
ington's opponents in that day, in a manner that would 
put to shame the most rabid partisan penny-a-liner of 
the present day. No terms of opprobrium were so 
violent, and no attempt to defame and discredit his 
character was so mean, as not to be useful to the pur- 
poses of these writers. The issue of Washington's war 
correspondence only seemed to inspire the pens of these 
libellers, and to increase their scandalous boldness of 
attack and methods. One may be cited as an example : 

"Suffer me to observe once for all, that in the analy- 
sis of your political character, I shall be constrained 
to show myself more the enemy of your heart than of 
your head. I promise not to wound your self-love, by 
the ambiguous apology for your conduct which has so 
often flowed from the lips of those who call themselves 

your 



your friends. They could vouch for 5-our political 
honesty ; on the score of icisdom, they have generally 
been silent. In the character of a general, you pos- 
sessed the undisputed palm of eminence ; in that of a 
politician, your modest}- forebore laying claim to the 
deep views of a statesman, or the craft}- wiles of a 
courtier ! Hence, whatever deviations from the con- 
stitutional orbit may have marked your political 
course, have arisen from the deficiency of your know- 
ledge, or from misdirection of your mind b}- the 
erroneous information of others ! " * 

Among the charges brought against Washington at 
this time was one that asserted he had been too great a 
friend of English interests during his presidency, and 
even during the Revolution. And in proof of the 
latter assertion the spurious letters of 1776 would be of 
servdce. On the ver}- day after the New York issue of 
his oflSicial letters was announced, the Daily Advertisey 
published an "extract of a letter (published as 
authentic) from the President of the United States, to 
Mr. Lund Washington, written in 1776." The extract 
was a few sentences from the letter of June 12th, 1776 
and read as follows : 

"Do not mistake me — I thank my God, I have never 
yet known what it was to fear for any personal danger 
that might befal me ! I am not afraid to die, why 
should I ? I am afraid only to die with infamy and 
disgrace. And, if I am afraid so to die, need I tell 

» Valerius, in the Aurora. I have reprinted in the appendix the famous, 
or rather infamous, words printed by that paper on Washington's retire- 
ment. 

that 



21 

that I am ten thousand times more afraid to live like 
Lucifer, a fallen angel. No, Lund, that were too 
much ; betide what will, I cannot, I will not survdve 
either mj^ misfortunes or my disgraces. Heaven knows 
how truly I love my country !" 

This was published September ii, 1795, and two 
months later (9 December, 1795), the Daily Advertisef 
contained a notice that " General Washington's letters 
to several of his friends in 1776," had just been re- 
ceived by Fellows and Adams, on Water street, price 
two shillings. This was presumablj^ copies of the 
pamphlet issued from the ' ' Federal Press ' ' of Phila- 
delphia, containing the seven spurious letters, and a 
preface which read as follows : 

"The following letters are, at this time, republished 
from a Boston edition, now out of print, as furnishing 
an interesting appendix to the official letters of Gen- 
eral Washington, which have lately made their ap- 
pearance. ' ' 

I fear the mention cf a Boston edition was put in as 
a blind, as I am unable to trace any such issue. 

A few months after the publication of the New York 
edition of the genuine ' ' official letters, ' ' the spurious 
letters were reprinted in that cit>' with an appendix con- 
taining a number of other letters and documents, mak- 
ing a ver}' respectable volume of about three hundred 
pages. The intent of this republication was explained 
with no little art in the preface, although it will be 
noted that not one word respecting their authenticity 
is given. 

3 Since 



22 

Since the publication of the two vohimes of General 
Washington's Original Letters to the Cofij^ress, the Edi- 
tor has been repeatedly applied to for the General's 
Doffiestie and dvijidential Epistles, first published soon 
after the beginning of the American war. These Epis- 
tles are here offered to the public, * together with a 
copious appendix, containing a number of Official Let- 
ters a fill Papers, not to be found in the General's Orig-- 
inal Letters, lately published. 

The world is, without doubt, greatly indebted to the 
industrious compiler of the two volumes of On'oinal 
Letters, above noticed, but the collection must certainly 
be looked upon as in a mutilated state, so long as it re- 
mains unaccompanied with the Epistles, etc.. which 
are now respectfully submitted to the patronage of the 
public, and which form a supplement absolutely neces- 
sary' to render the work complete. 

That this collection oiDotnestie and Confidential Epis- 
tles will be regarded as a valuable acquisition bj* a 
ven.' great majority of the citizens of the United States, 
is presumable from the prevailing taste of all well- 
informed people. Men not precluded by ignorance from 
ever>- degree of literan.' curiosity, will always feel a 
solicitude to become acquainted with whatever may 
ser\"e to throw light on the characters of illustrious 
personages. History represents them acting on the 
stage of the world, courting the applause of mankind ; 
to see them in their real character, we must follow them 
behind the scenes, among their private connections and 
domestic concerns. 

Nor is this kind of inquisitiveness to be ascribed to an 
ill-natured desire of discovering the foibles of those who 
tower above us in talents of virtue, witli an intention of 
levelling them to our owni standard ; it has a much 
more amiable source; which is, no other than a na- 

* The full titles are g-iven iu the Bibliographical uote at the eud of this in- 
troduction. 

tural 



23 

tur'al propensit}' in the generalitj' of mankind to find 
something to commend in even the most insignificant 
actions of those they admire. The inconceivable 
pains that have been taken to come at the domestic 
anecdotes of Shakespeare, could certainly have no mo- 
tive but the laudable one of obtaining some endearing 
memorial of a man, whose fame will never die but 
with the language in which he wrote. 

If, then, this propensity is praiseworthy when the 
subject of enquiry relates to persons of literary fame, it 
must be so in a ten-fold degree when it relates to a man 
so eminently exalted as he to whom these Epistles are 
attributed ; for, however, great may be the ser\dces of 
the former, however their labors may have added to 
our pleasures, softened our manners, enlarged our un- 
derstandings, and improved our hearts, yet are they of 
an order inferior to those which rescue an Empire from 
ruin, give happiness to millions, and enable them to 
transmit it to their children's children. Even ab- 
stracted from all considerations relating to self, where 
is the man whose every sentiment so well deserves to 
be remembered ? In whom was there ever seen such 
an assemblage of virtues ? To him belongs the rare 
felicitj^ of uniting zeal with moderation, firmness with 
prudence, and courage with circumspection. We may 
challenge the world to produce a hero who, like him, 
has attained to the highest pinnacle of honor, without 
staining his career with a single crime. 

Not to know how to prize the good thc}^ possess, is 
but too often the misfortune of mankind ; we must not, 
therefore, be surprised, if some Americans should be 
found totall}^ indifferent as to such anecdotes as do 
honor to our illustrious chief magistrate, and others 
who seek for such onlj^ as may tend to produce a con- 
trary effect ; but we may rest assured that the time 
will come, when even those who are now vainly endea- 
voring to cast a shade over his virtues and his serv- ices, 

will 



24 

will think themselves happy in possessing the slightest 
testimony of their veneration for his memory. 

The delicate irony that prompted the insertion of 
such a preface in a book where all the truth was rele- 
gated to the appendix, and even there in a garbled 
shape, and where old untruths were resurrected to ser\'e 
as a "campaign document " to the discredit of the al- 
leged writer, seems to have struck Washington, and 
induced him to take steps to repudiate once for all any 
connection with these letters. As Rivington was the 
seller of this book, and as he had been instrumental in 
giving the letters currency in 1778, Washington natur- 
ally thought of applying to him for information respect- 
ing the real writer. Unwilling to have anj' direct 
communication with the former Lo^-al printer, Wash- 
ington wrote to Colonel Benjamin \^'alker, one of his 
former aids, who held the office of naval officer of New 
York in Washington's administration. His letter was 
as follows : 

Philadelphia, 12 January, 1797. 

Dear Walker -. * * * if j-ou read the Aurora 
of this cit3% or those gazettes which are under the same 
influence, j-ou cannot but have perceived with what 
malignant industry and perservering falsehoods I am 
assailed, in order to weaken if not to destroy the con- 
fidence of the public. 

Amongst other attempts to effect this purpose, spur- 
ious letters, known at the time of their first publication 
(I believe in the year 1777) to be forgeries, to answer 
a similar purpose in the revolution, are (or extracts 
from them) brought forward with the highest emblaz- 
oning of which the}' are susceptible, with a view to 
attach principles to me which every- action of my life 

has 



25 

has given the lie to. But that is no stumbling-block 
with the editors of these papers and their supporters. 
And now, perceiving a disinclination on my part, and 
perhaps knowing that I had determined not to take 
notice of such attacks, thej^ are pressing this matter 
upon the public mind with more earnestness than 
usual, urging that my silence is a proof of their genu- 
ineness. 

Although I never wrote, nor ever saw one of these 
letters until the}- issued from New York in print, yet 
the author of them nuist have been tolerabl}- well ac- 
quainted in or with some person of my family, to have 
given the names and some circumstances, which are 
grouped in the mass of erroneous details. But, of all 
the mistakes which have been committed in this busi- 
ness, none is more palpable, or susceptible of detection, 
than the manner in vrhicli it is said they were obtained, 
by the capture of my mulatto Billy, with a portman- 
teau. All the army under my immediate command 
could contradict this, and I believe most of them know, 
that no attendant of mine, nor a particle of my bag- 
gage, ever fell into the hands of the enemy during the 
whole course of the war. 

It would be a singular satisfaction to me to learn who 
was the author of the letters, and from what source 
they originated. No person in this country can, I con- 
ceive, give this information but Mr. Rivington. If, 
therefore, you are upon terms of familiarity with that 
gentleman, and see no impropriet}- in hinting this 
desire to him, by doing it you would oblige me. He 
rnay comply to what extent his own judgment shall 
dictate ; and I pledge my honor, that nothing to his 
disadvantage, or the disadvantage of any of the actors 
of that time, shall result from it. 

So far as the record shows, Washington's curiosity 
was not satisfied ; and the opposition still haq^ing upon 

these 



26 

these "campaign stories," — although Adams was about 
to step into the President's chair — he recorded among 
the last of his official acts, the falsity of these letters: 

"I suffered everj' attack, that was made upon my 
executive conduct (the one first mentioned among the 
rest), to pass unnoticed while I remained in public 
office, well knowing, that, if the general tenor of it 
would not stand the test of the investigation, a news- 
paper vindication would be of little avail ; but as im- 
mense pains have been taken to disseminate these 
counterfeit letters, I conceived it a justice due to my 
own character and to posterit}' to disown them in ex- 
plicit terms : and this I did in a letter directed to the 
Secretary' of State, to be filed in his office, the day on 
which I closed my administration. This letter has 
since been published in the gazettes by the head of 
that department. ' ' ^ 

This letter is now on file among the papers in the 
Department of State, is written by Timothy Pickering, 
and merely signed by the President. I give it in full : 

Philadelphia, 3 March. 1797. 

Dear Sir : — At the conclusion of nu' public employ- 
ments, I have thought it expedient to notice the pub- 
lication of certain forged letters, which first appeared 
in the year 1777, and were obtruded upon the public as 
mine. They are said b}- the editor to have been found 
in a small portmanteau that I had left in the care of 
my mulatto servant, named Bilh', who, it is pretended, 
was taken prisoner at Fort Lee, 1776. 

The period when these letters were first printed, 
will be recollected, and what were the impressions they 

* U'iishnii^-ton to U'iUiain Gordon, 13 October, 1797. Gordon proposed to 
republish iu England the two volumes of geuuiue letters, with a few which 
he had copied during the war. 

were 



27 

were intended to produce on the public mind. It was 
then supposed to be of some consequence to strike at 
the integrity of the motives of the American Com- 
mander in Chief, and to paint his inclinations as at var- 
iance with his professions and his duty. Another crisis 
in the affairs of America having occurred, the same 
weapon has been resorted to, to wound my character 
and deceive the people. 

The letters in question have the dates, addresses and 
signatures here following : 

" New York, June 12th, 1776. To Mr. Ltind Wash- 
ington, at Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia.' 

" G. w.' 

"To John Parke Oistis, Esq., at the Hon. Benedict 
Calvert's, Esq., Mount Airy, Marj^and," "June i8th 
1776." "G. w.' 

"New York, July 8th, 1776. To Mr. Ltmd Wash 
ington, at Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia.' 

"g. W.' 

"New York, July i6th, 1876. To Mr. Liind Wash- 
ingtoyi, etc." " G. w.' 

" New York, July 15th, 1776. To Mr. Ltmd Wash 
ington, etc." "g. W.' 

"New York, July 22d, 1776. To Mr. Ltind Wash 
ingtoJi, etc." " G. W.' 

"June 24th, 1776. To Mrs. Washington:' "g. w.' 

■ At the time when these letters first appeared, it was 
notorious to the army immediately under my command, 
and particularly to the gentlemen attached to my per- 
son, that my mulatto man Billy had never been one 
moment in the power of the enemy. It is also a fact 
that no part of my baggage or any of ray attendants 
were captured during the whole course of the war. 
These well-known facts made it unnecessar}', during 
the war, to call the public attention to the forger^-, by 
any express declaration of mine ; and a firm reliance 

on 



28 

on my fellow-citizens, and the abundant proofs they 
gave of their confidence in me. rendered it alike un- 
necessary to take an}^ formal notice of the revival of 
the imposition during my civil administration. But as 
I cannot know how soon a more serious event may 
succeed to that which will this day take place, I have 
thought it a duty that I owe to myself, to my country, 
and to truth, now to detail the circumstances above re- 
cited, and to add my solemn declaration, that the let- 
ters herein described are a base forgery, and that I 
never saw or heard of them until they appeared in 
print. 

The present letter I commit to your care, and desire 
it may be deposited in the office of the department of 
State, as a testimony of the truth to the present gene- 
ration and to posterity. 

Accept, I praj^ 5'ou, the sincere esteem and affection- 
ate regard of. 

Dear Sir, 

Your obedient 
G? Washington. 
Timothy Pickering, 

Secretary of State. 

This letter, prefaced by a little note from Pickering, 
was sent to the gazettes, and widely printed through- 
out the country. Such a characterization would, of 
course, discredit the volume which contained the de- 
nounced epistles, and destroy the sale of the book, while 
disturbing the plans of its compilers. Did they call 
in and suppress the unsold copies ? Did the publishers 
make any explanation for having been led into pub- 
lishing the collection ? Was a reparation made to the 
injured sensitiveness of the now retired President ? If 
an}^ of these acts were performed, I have been able to 

find 



29 

find no record of them, save in one instance. In a few 
copies of tlie Epistles I find pasted into the front a re- 
print of the Washington-Pickering letter, printed in 
octavo form, and probably designed to protect the 
seller in case any question should arise, rather than 
disabuse the misplaced confidence of the buyer in the 
genuineness of his purchase. When I canie across 
this leaf in one copy of the Epistles in my father's col- 
lection, I thought it unique, and it was long before I 
came across another. In the catalogue of Henry Ste- 
ven's sale of 1872 mention is made of " the rare page 
printed to match'' the book, and the catalogue adds. 
" This ought to have ended the matter, but it did not, 
for to this day there are writers who from choice or 
warped moral vision give credit to lies rather than to 
truth." 

The volume of Epistles, Domestic, Confidential, and 
Official, was reprinted in England in 1796 by the Riv- 
ington's, and was noticed in the Monthly Review :^ 

■'We believe that the whole of what are here entitled 
'Epistles, domestic, confidential, and official, from 
General Washington,' are only a republication of the 
letters which were notoriously fabricated and first pub- 
lished in London, soon after the commencement of the 
American war, for the purpose of engaging the people 
of this country to approve the continuance of it. We 
ought, however, to except those materials which com- 
pose the Appendix, and which have been copied from 
new.spapers, etc,, in order, no doubt, to reflect some 
credit on those that were forged; and forged, un- 
doubtedly, by a Mr. V , then a young Episcopal 

• The Monthly Review or Literary Jovriial enlarged, vol. xxi, 475. 

clergyman, 



clergyman, who came from New York, in order to 
make his fortune Jioe, in the character of a Loyalist.'' 

A word as to the fabricator of these letters. The 
"young Episcopal clergyman" suggested by the 
Monthly Rt'vic-ti\ was probably the Rev. John Vardill, a 
graduate of King's College, who had gone to England 
in 1774 to take Holy Orders, and had remained there, 
although appointed assistant rector of Trinit}' Church 
in New York. It is known that he was in the em- 
ploy of the goveniment, and wielded a ready pen in 
the service of his masters, some poetical satires on 
the Whigs being attributed to him. Trumbull, in 
"McFingal," wTOte : 

"In Vardill, that poetic zealot, 
I view a lawn bedizen'd Prelate ; 
Wliile mitres fall, as 'tis their duty. 
On heads of Chandler and Auchmuty." 

I confess, I should dislike to believe, except on the 
plainest proof, that one in Holy Orders could stoop so 
low as to utter forged papers with a view to deliber- 
ately injure the reputation of another man. Party 
enthusiasm too often has degenerated into such im- 
morality, and men who would not consciously violate 
truth or decency under any other circumstances have 
been kno^^^l in factional fights to say and do what the 
simple primer of morality would condemn as WTong. 
Even the plea of necessity- can not excuse such wander- 
ings from the line of tnitli and justice. It is only 
recently that we were treated to the humiliating 
spectacle of a great national party, claiming to be a 

party 



31 

part}' of moral ideas, banking upon a set of forged 
utterances that, impossible on their face, were so easily- 
shown to be false as to give rise to a feeling of wonder- 
ment that their use could even have suggested itself to 
a reasoning and reasonable creature. * 

Apart, however, from anj^ such moral objection to 
laying these forged letters at the door of a clerg}-man, 
his lack of a knowledge of Washington's habits of 
thought and waj's of living, would offer a forcible ar- 
gument against his having composed them. Vardill 
went to England in 1774, as a 3'oung man of about 22, 
and did not return again to America. It is possible 
that the materials might have been furnished to him 
b}^ some other loyalist, or b\' a number of lo3-alists, in 
England ; but even then it would be difficult for one, 
a perfect stranger to Washington and to Virginia, to 
have turned out so clever a performance — for it is un- 
deniably clever, even the punctuation being character- 
istic of the supposed writer. 

It is far more probable that the fabricator was from 
Virginia, and as Washington saj^s, some one possessed 
of a knowledge of the family and life at Mount Vernon. 
Fortunatel}- we are not entirelj' without foundation for 
making a conjecture, as we have important evidence, 
giving probablyWashington's own suspicions, contained 

•The New York Everting Post, which did excellent service iu ruuuing 
down and exposing these forgeries, pointed out in its issue of 14 October, 
1SS9, that the scheme of manufacturing sham extracts from English papers 
for political purposes was practised by the first Napoleon. He wrote to 
Fouche, 2S August, 1S04: " The notes you have sent me upon the power- 
lessuess of Russia are written by a man of sense. Publish them in a news- 
paper as translated from an English paper ; choose the name of one that is 
little known." Lanfiey, ii, r46. 

in 



32 

in a letter from Col. Tench Tilgliman, then in the mili- 
tary family of Washington, and well known to possess 
his confidence : ' ' The letters published under General 
Washington's signature are not genuine. They are 
intended for the purposes you mention. He suspects 
Jack Randolph for the author, as the letters contain a 
knowledge of his family affairs that none but a Virgin- 
ian could be acquainted with. The sentiments are 
noble, and such as the General himself often expresses. 
I have heard him declare a thousand times, and he 
does it every day in the most public company, that in- 
dependence was farthest of anything from his thoughts, 
and that he never entertained the idea until he plainly 
saw that absolute conquest was the aim, and uncondi- 
tional submission the terms which Great Britian meant 
to grant. " Tench Tilghman to James Tilghman, Val- 
ley Forge, 24 April 1778. And as further proof may be 
cited a MS. note on the New York leaflet, in the hand- 
writing of Du Simitiere : ' ' Spurious : wrote in L^ondon 
by a Mr. Randolph of Virginia." 

Apart from these data we are able to appeal to some 
internal evidences which seem to point to Randolph as 
the writer. He approaches accuracy when detailing 
matters or impressions that occurred prior to November, 
1775, when he sailed for England, although he is sadly 
mixed in dates. For example Washington's anxiety 
that his wife should undergo inoculation may reasona- 
bly have been shown in his letters to her in the fall of 
1775, when he invited her to join him in the camp at 
Cambridge. Randolph was intimate with Mrs. Wash- 
ington and may have seen some of these letters, and 

thus 



33 

thus obtained the idea of that which is included among 
these spurious letters. So also, as regards the reasons 
that induced Washington to accept the command, 
which are detailed with historical accuracy, and make 
an interesting addition to what may be gathered from 
other and clearly authentic sources.* He may have 
gathered this information from Mrs. Washington, from 
one of the correspondents of the general's in Virginia, 
or from his son, Edmund Randolph, who served in 
Washington's family from August to November 1775. 
Indeed, much of that knowledge of what occupied 
Washington's thoughts, (and it is curious to note how 
happily at times the forger has anticipated what the gen- 
eral did write to persons who would not have suffered 
the letters to become public in their generation,) may 
have been based upon what Edmund had written him 
in these few months of military experience. To the 
members of his family Washington was communica- 
tive, for he trusted them implicitly, and I do not find 
a single instance in which this trust was misplaced. 
Certainly by the end of August, 1775, the evils of the 
temporary expedients and dilatory action of Congress 
had been felt, and had been freel}^ discussed by the gen- 
eral with his aids — with what freedom his letters to 
Reed proved. There were many sources from which 
Randolph could have obtained information of what was 
going on, but none more likely than from his son. 

The little personality, touching a conversation with 
"a friend, now most unjustly as unwisely, driven from 

♦ Appendix. 

his 



34 

his friends and his home"* is not without its vahie, 
for Randolph maintained his loyalty to the king, and 
was forced to seek safety on board the ship where Dun- 
more was plotting against the lives and property of 
those whom he had been sent to govern, and whom, 
there is evidence to show, he had wantonly sacrificed 
to his own selfish aims, pleading the safetj' of the State 
and the interest of his king. Another line of evidence 
is the strong belief, shown throughout these letters, in 
the idea of a reconciliation between the rebellious colo- 
nies and the mother countr)'. That, also, was an 
article of Randolph's belief, and, as Mr. Conwa}- sug- 
gests, Jefferson regarded his departure for England 
somewhat in the light of a mission. f "I,ooking with 
fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I 
cannot help hoping j'ou maj' be able to contribute to- 
ward expediting the good work." Jeffcrsoji to John 
Randolph, 25 August, 1775. In the manuscripts pre- 
served in Dra3'ton House, Northamptonshire, in the 
possession of the famih' of Lord George Gennaine, is 
one unsigned, dated 4 August, 17S0, and endorsed, 
"Mr. Randolph's plan of accommodation" — un- 
doubtedly drawn up and submitted to the British miu- 
istr}- by the loj-alist refugee from Virginia. How 
dearty he paid for harboring such a hope and irrevoc- 
abl)^ attaching himself to the loj-alist side, with the 
hated Dunmore as the t5'pe and leader, historj- relates, 
though it has preserved almost nothing that relates to 
the king's attomej', long the ablest lawj'er in Virginia, 

* Letter, i6 July 1776, Post. 

t Conway, Omitttd Chapters of History, 20. 

save 



35 

save this fatal step. Randolpli is said to have lived in 
London on an annuity of ;^ioo, and dying in 1784 of 
a broken heart, expressed the wish that he might find 
a resting place in Virginia, whose cause he had de- 
serted nine years before. 

And finally should be noted the opinions expressed 
on the leaders in Virginia politics. Under the colonial 
rule all the ofiices of state were at the gift of the king, 
or of his agent the Governor. In distributing this 
patronage, the leading idea was to bestow it upon such 
men of influence or property as would strengthen the 
royal power in the colony. The Governor, the Attorney 
general, and the Privy council of the Governor, were 
thus emblems of royal prerogative, as opposed to the 
House of Burgesses, which represented the popular 
element — the home or local influence. Almost uncon- 
sciously there sprung up a line separating the holders 
of the higher ofiices from the popular branch, a line 
difiicult to trace or define, but none the less dividing 
the active political forces into two factions — for they 
do not deserve the title of parties. The former may be 
called the aristocrats, and the latter the republicans, 
but it is impossible to say in precise terms wherein 
their difference lay, or to allot to either party definite 
leaders. Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Mercer and 
Page, may be cited among the liberal or republican 
element, while the Nelsons, the Randolphs, the Byrds. 
the Lees, Corbins and Carters, were on the other side. 
So that it is quite natural to find little sympathy 
among the latter for Patrick Henry and the new con- 
stitution, and a w^ord of praise for the Lees, and the 

new council. 

In 



36 

In the light of .these evidences it would not be right 
to assert positively that the fabricator of these letters 
was John Randolph, the last king's attorney general 
of Virginia ; but they offer reasonable proof tending to 
show that he might have written them. 

The letters are now reprinted from the London edi- 
tion of 1777, and differ somewhat from the version I 
have given in ni}^ Writi7igs of Washington, not only in 
verbal detail, but notably in correcting the curious 
alteration of dates occasioned bv Rivington. Some 
temporary interest was revived the last spring in these 
letters by a mention of them in a political speech aris- 
ing from the Parnell Commission. Sir William Har- 
court adduced an historical parallel to the Pigott for- 
geries in these forged letters pronounced against 
General Washington. 

The letters have some historical importance, and be- 
ing out of print, and the original issues of some rarity, 
I determined upon this republication, with notes and 
illustrations taken from the genuine writings of Wash- 
ington. I have added some contemporary sketches of 
Washington, and other material gathered from sources 
not likely to be discovered by the student. There may 
be some doubt of the value of these records as true 
descriptions, and just characterizations ; but their anti- 
quarian interest is something in their favor, and to a 
student of Washington's career and character, no record 
is to be laid aside as worthless. A casual sentence 
penned by the greatest scoundrel in ministerial pay, a 
few words written by a friend, will often be found to con- 
tain what is of vital moment in determining a question 

of 



37 

of history, or a phase of the workings of Washington's 
mind. This is my excuse for again giving to the world 
what at first thought might better be left in forgetful- 
ness. It may also be added that for the first time since 
these fabrications first saw the light, they are laid be- 
fore the public in their true character, as forged or 
spurious letters. 

WORTHINGTON ChAUNCEY FoRD. 
Washington, jo October, i88g. 
4 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



L,etters / from / General Washington. / To several of 
his PMends in the / year 1776. / In which are set forth 
/ a fairer and fuller view of / American Politics, / than 
ever yet transpired, / or the Public could be made 
acquainted with / through any other channel. 

London : Printed for J. Bew, No. 28, Paternos- 
ter-Row. M,DCC,LXXVII. 
8vo. pp. 73. 



The arrangement of the letters in this first issue dif- 
fers somewhat from that of the American editions : 

1. To Lund Washington, 12 June, 1776. 

2. John Parke Custis, iSJune, 1776. 

3. Lady Washington, 24 June, 1776. 

4. Lund Washington, 16 July, 1776. 

5. Lund Washington, 8 Juty, 1777 (^/V). 

6. Lund Washington, 15 Juty, 1776. 

7. Lund Washington, 22 July, 1776. 

(3S) 



LETTERS 

FROM 

GENERAL WASHINGTON, 

To feveral of his FRIENDS in the 
Year 1776. 

IN WHICH ARE SET FORTH, 

A FAIRER and fuller VIEW 

O F 

AMERICAN POLITICKS, 

THAN EVER YET TRANSPIRED, 

Or the Public could be made acquainted with 
through any other Channel. 

TOGETHER WITH 

The Reverend Mr. JACOB DUCHE's (late Chaplain 
to the Congrefs) Letter to Mr. Washington, and an 
Answer to it, by Mr. John Parke, a Lieutenant- 
Colonel in Mr. Wafhington's Army. 

Printed in the Year 1778. 



40 

In the New York issue of 1778 the order was as fol- 
lows: 



To Lund Washington, 12 June, 1776. 
John Parke Custis, 18 June, 1776. 
Lund Washington, S Jul}^ 1776.* 
Lund Washington, 16 July, 1776.! 
Lund Washington, 15 Jul3% 1776. 
Lund Washington, 22 July, 1776. 
Mrs. Washington, 24 July, 1776. 



Letters from General Washington to several of his 
Friends, in June and July, 1776, In which is set 
Forth, an Interesting View of American Politics, at 
that All-Important Period. 

Philadelphia : Republished at the Federal Press, 

1795- 
8vo, pp. 44. 



Epistles Domestic, Confidential, and Official, from Gen- 
eral Washington. Written about the Commence- 
ment of the American Contest, when he entered 
on the Command of the Army of the United States. 
With an Interesting Series of his Letters, particularly 
to the British Admirals Arbuthnot and Digby, to 
Gen. Sir Henr>' Clinton, Lord Coniwallis, Sir Guy 
Carleton, Marquis de la Fayette, etc., etc. To Ben- 

♦This letter is that dated the i6th July in the English edition, 
t This is the letter bearing date July 8th in the English edition. These 
same errors were reproduced in all later editions. 

jamin 



41 

jamin Harrison, Esq, Speaker of the House of Dele- 
gates in Virginia, to Admiral the Count de Grasse, 
General Sullivan, respecting an attack of New York; 
including manj^ applications and addresses presented 
to him with his answers ; Orders and Instructions, on 
important occasions, to his Aids de Camp, etc. etc. 
etc. None of which have been printed in the two 
volumes published a few months ago. 

New York: Printed by G. Robhisoji, corner of 

Williai7i and John Streets, and J. Bull, No. ii^ 

Cherry St?-eet, and sold by James Rivingtoti, 

No. 1^6 Pearl Street. m,dcc,xcvi. 

%vo, pp. xiv., 303. Portrait engraved after Savage 

b}- Rollinson. The letters to p. 66 are spurious. 

Same title. New York : Printed. London : Re- 
printed for F. and C. Rivington. 1796. 
^vo, pp. xvi., 303. No portrait. 



Official Letters / to the Honorable / American Con- 
gress, / Written during the War between the / United 
Colonies and Great Britain, / by his Excellency, / 
George Washington, / Commander in Chief of the 
Continental Forces, / now / President of the United 
States. / Copied, by special Permission, from the 
Original Papers preserved / in the office of the Secre- 
tary^ of State, Philadelphia. 

Londo7i: Printed Jor G. G. and J. Robinson, B. 
a7id J. IVJiitc, T. Cadell and IV. Davies, IV. 

Otridge 



42 

Otridge and Son, J. Debreit, R. Fanldcr, and 
T. Egerton. 1795. 
2 vols,, 'Zvo, pp. viii., 364; 3S4. The last letter 
printed is dated December 31, 1778. 

Same title. Boston : Printed by Manning & Loring, 

for S. Hall, W. Spotswood, J. White, Thomas and 

Andrews, D. West, E. I^arkin, W\ P. Blake, 

and J. West. 1795. 

2 vols., 8w, pp. vi., 340, 356. A second Boston 

edition was issued in 1796, the collation being the 

same, with the addition, however, of a portrait 

of the President, engraved by S. Hill, from a 

portrait by Edward Savage. 

Same title. New York : Printed and sold by Samtiel 

Campbell: No. 124. Pearl Street. m,dcc,xcvi. 
2Vols., Zvo.,pp. [2] 276; 311. 



LETTERS 

FROM 
GENERAL WASHINGTON, 

To feveral of his FRIENDS in the 
Year 1776. 

IN WHICH ARE SET FORTH 

A FAIRER and fuller VIEW of 
AMERICAN POLITICS. 

Than ever yet transpired, 

Or the Public could be made acquainted with 
through any otlier Channel. 

LONDON: 

Printed for J. Bew, No. 28, Pater-Nofter Row. 
M.DCC.LXXVII. 

(Price One Shilling and Sixpence.) 



TO MR. LUND WASHINGTON, AT MOUNT VERNON, 
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA.* 

New York, 12 Tune, 1776. 
Dear Lund, 

Though I wrote to you but a very few days 

ago, and have nothing new of much moment to 

communicate, I cannot deny myself the comfort 

of unburthening my mind to you, whenever I 

have a little leisure, amid the thousand anxieties 

and disquietudes that almost distract me. I know 

the goodness of your heart, and that you will 

attend to me with indulgence and sympathy, 

though it be not in your power any otherwise to 

afford me relief. There cannot, in the nature of 

things, be a situation so truly irksome to an 

ingenuous mind, as the being perpetually obliged 

♦"Lund Washington, born 1737, died 1796, was the son of Townshend 
Washington, of 'Greenhill,' Choptanck, (who married Elizabeth I.und) 
and was thus a great-grandson of Lawrence (the immigrant) brother of the 
General's great-grandfather. Lund W. married Elizabeth Foote in 1782, by 
whom he left no issue. He managed Mount Vernon for twenty-five years, 
retiring in 1785, residing thereafter at ' Hayfield,' an estate of 1200 acres 
about five miles from Mount Vernon. Washington parted from him reluc- 
tantly. In 1778 he wrote that his (Lund's) wages were ' totally inadequate 
to [his] trouble and services,' and insisted on his having a share of the pro- 
duce of the estate of more value than a payment in depreciated currency." 
—From Moncure D. Conway's notes in ' Georg-e IVashington and Mount 
Vernon,' published by the Long Island Historical Society, 1889. 

(45) to 



46 

to act a part foreign to our true feelings ; yet 
this, alas ! as yon know, is, and must be, my lot. 
I wear a countenance dressed in the calm serenity 
of perfect confidence, whilst my heart is corroded 
with infinite apprehensions, and I have no bosom 
friend near me, to whom I dare lay it open. Tell 
me, Lund, for }oii have long been privy to my 
most secret thoughts, — trusting to thy native can- 
dor, I have never hesitated to lay my heart bare 
and open to thy inspection ; tell me then, am I, do 
you think, more subject to fears than other men? 
For I will not conceal it from you, that, at this 
moment, I feel myself a very coward. Do not 
mistake me ; — I thank my God, I have never yet 
known what it was to fear for any personal danger 
that might befal me. I am not afraid to die — why 
should I ? I am afraid only to die with infamy 
and disgrace. And, if I am afraid so to die, need 
I tell you that I am ten thousand times more 
afraid to live, like Lucifer, a fallen Angel. No, 
Iviind, that were too much ; betide what will, I 
cannot, and I will not survive either my misfor- 
tunes, or my disgraces. Heaven, that knows my 
heart, knows how truly I love my country ; * and 
that I embarked in this arduous enterprise on the 
purest motives. But, we have overshot our mark : 

♦The sentences " Do not mistake me" etc., to " knows how tnily I love 
my country " were printed in the Daily Advertiser (^i. Y.), ii September, 
95. 

we 



47 

we have grasped at things beyond our reach : it is 
impossible we should succeed ; and, I cannot with 
truth, say that I am sorry for it ; because I am far 
from being sure that we deserve to succeed. That 
the British ministry had meditated schemes fatal 
to the liberties of America ; and that, if we had 
not opposed their first efforts to impose taxes on 
us, without our consent, we might have bid adieu 
to every idea of constitutional security hereafter I 
have not a doubt. Nay, I am so thoroughly per- 
suaded of the unworthiness of their designs, and 
of the duty of every honest American to oppose 
them, that, dissatisfied as I am with my situation, 
were it to do over again, I would rather be even as 
I am than tamely crouch, whilst chains were fast- 
ening round my neck. * For there is not, in my 
estimation, so vile a thing upon earth as a human 
being who, having once enjoyed liberty, can 
patiently bear to see it taken from him. I would 
and I will die ten thousand deaths, rather than be 
this thing myself. On these principles, and these 

* " When the councils of the British nation had formed a plan for enslav- 
ing America, and depriving her sons of their most sacred and invaluable 
privileges, against the clearest remonstrances of the constitution, of justice, 
and of truth, and, to execute their schemes, had appealed to the sword, I 
esteemed it my duty to take part in the contest, and more especially on ac- 
count of my being called thereto by the unsolicited suffrages of the repre- 
sentatives of a free people ; wishing for no other reward than that arising 
from a conscientious discharge of the important trust, and that my services 
might contribute to the establishment of freedom and peace, upon a perma- 
nent foundation, and merit the applause of my countrymen, and every vir- 
tuous citizen." Washington's reply to an Address from the General Assembly 
of Massachusetts, March, 1776. 

only, 



48 

only, I first took up arms : but my misfortune, and 
the true source of all my uneasiness is, that though 
in good policy, as well as honor, these ought to be 
the principles of every American, I have long ago 
discovered, they are not. And it is on this ac- 
count alone, that I dread our defeat. Our want of 
skill, our want of ammunition, in short, our want 
of almost everything which an army ought to 
have, are all, no doubt, exceedingly against us : 
but, they are all nothing to our want of virtue. — 
Unused to the many arts and devices, by which 
designing men carry their points, I unwillingly 
listened to my own apprehensions, when early in 
the first Congress, I thought I saw a tendency to 
measures which I never could approve of. I 
reasoned myself, however, out of my fears, with 
no ordinary reproach on my own meanness, in 
having given way to suspicions, which could not 
be true, unless we had men amongst ourselves 
more flagitious than even those we were opposing. 
At length, however, when a continental army 
came to be voted for, my fears returned with re- 
doubled force : for then, for the first time, I clearly 
saw our aims reached farther than we cared to 
avow. It was carried with an unanimity that 
really astonished me ; because, I knew many who 
voted for it, were as averse to the independency of 
America, as I was. And they even ridiculed me 
for my apprehensions on that account; and, in- 
deed, 



49 

deed, when they suggested that Great Britain, 
seeing ns apparently determined to risque every 
thing rather than that they should tax us, would 
never think of engaging in a civil war with us, 
which must necessarily cost her more than even 
America could repay her, I could not but hope, 
that I was mistaken ; and that our military prepa- 
rations might be a good political movement, [n 
one thing, however, we all agreed, that, as the 
forces were chiefly to be raised in New-England, it 
would be extremely rash and imprudent in the 
southern delegates to leave them in the possession 
of so formidable a power without any check. I 
need not tell you, that it was this consideration 
which, if I am to be credited, sorely against my 
will, determined me to accept of the command of 
this army. We set out with bad omens; I was 
mistrustful of them in every thing ; and they were 
taught to look upon me with jealousy. This soon 
manifested itself in forming them to any thino- 
like decent discipline. But I have, long ago, pes- 
tered you more than enough with complaints on 
this head. — I knew not, however, certainly, that I 
had been appointed to this high station only to be 
disgraced and ruined, till about the middle of the 
latter end of last February. * When, contrary to 

* " I found a mixed multitude of people here, under very little discipline, 
order, or government." Washiyigton to the Piestdent of Congress, 27 Julyi 
1775- " From my own experience I can easily judge of your difficulties to 

my 



50 

my wishes, I found it necessary that we should 
come to open hostilities against our fellow-subjects 
in the ministerial army : doubtless, common pru- 
dence required that when we did attempt it, we 
should, if possible, do it speedily and effectually. 
And, having all the reason in the world to believe 
that large armies would be sent against us early in 
the summer, I resolved, cost what it would, to cut 
off those already here, which would have given us 
such infinite advantages over any future reinforce- 
ments that might be sent. And this I believe was 
easily in our power ; but, as I have already told 
you, nothing is to be done with our New England 
allies, unless they are let into all your secrets. I 
could not advance a step without communicating 
my intentions to the gentlemen in the civil depart- 

introduce order and discipline into troops, who have from their infancj' im- 
bibed ideas of the most contrary kind. It would be far beyond the compass 
of a letter for me to describe the situation of things here on my arrival. 
Perhaps you will only be able to judge of it from my assuring you, that mine 
must be a portrait at full length of what you have had in miniature." 
IVashinffton to Schuyler, 26 July, 1775. " There has been so manj- great and 
capital errors and abuses to rectify, so many examples to make, and so 
little inclination in the officers of inferior rank to contribute their aid to ac- 
complish this work, that my life has been nothing else (^/'wiTt' /<:</;«£? Ai^rif), 
*H^ one continued round oi annoyance ami futigiie ; in short no pecuniary 
>-^f(;w/><'«Jt' could induce me to undergo what / /lazv, especiaHy as I expect by 
shewing so little countenance to irregfularities and publick abuses to render 
myself obnoxious to a. greater part of these people." Jl'ashington to Richard 
Henry Lee, 29 August, 1775. "Could I have foreseen what I have, and am 
likely to experience, no consideration upon earth could have induced me to 
accept this command. A regiment or any subordinate department would 
have been accompanied with ten times the satisfaction, and perhaps the 
honor." ll\ishington to Joseph Reed, 2S November, 1775. 

ment; 



51 

ment ; a thing ever ruinous in war. * It soon got 
wind, as I had foreseen ; and it appeared, that the 
General of the enemy was apprized of my design. 
Still, however, I persevered in my purpose ; which, 
in spite of all his care and caution, I was confident 
must succeed, and reduce him to the utmost ex- 
tremity. But (as every military man must know) 
so capital a blow was not to be struck without the 
loss both of many men, and much property! For 
my design was, if they would not surrender by an 

* " I cau bear to hear of reputed or real errors. The man who wishes to 
stand well in the opinion of othei-s must do this ; because he is thereby en- 
abled to correct his faults, or remove prejudices which are imbibed against 
him. For this reason, I shall thank you for giving me the opinions of the 
world upon such points as you know me to be interested iu ; for, as I have 
but one capital object iu \'iew, I could wish to make my conduct coincide 
with the wish of mankind, as far as I can consistently ; I mean, without 
departing from that great line of duty, which, though hid under a cloud for 
some time, from a peculiarity of circumstancea may nevertheless bear a 
scrutiny. My constant attention to the great and perplexing objects which 
continually rise to my view, absorbs all lesser considerations, and indeed 
scarcely allows me time to reflect that there is such a body in existence as 
the General Court of this colony, but when I am reminded of it by a com- 
mittee ; nor can I, upon recollection, discover in what instances (I wish 
they would be more explicit) I have been inattentive to, or slighted them. 
They could not, surely, conceive that there was a propriety in unbosoming 
the secret of an army to them ; that it was necessarj' to ask their opinion 
in throwing up an intrenchment, forming a batallion, etc, etc." ll'asln>ig- 
ton to Joseph Reed, 14 January, 1776. 

"Your acknowledgment of my attention to the civil constitution of this 
colony, whilst active in the line of my department, also demands my grate- 
ful thanks. A regard to every Provincial institution, where not incompatible 
with the common interest, I hold a principle of duty and of policy, and it 
shall ever form a part of my conduct. Had I not learnt this before, the 
happy experience of the advantages resulting from a friendly intercourse 
with your honorable body, their ready and willing concurrence to aid and 
to counsel whenever called upon in cases of difficulty and emergency, 
would have taught me the useful lesson." IVashington's reply to an address 
of the General Assembly of Massachusetts, March, 1776. 

honorable 



52 

honorable capitulation to burn the town about 
their ears, and so rush in, and cut them off in their 
attempts to escape to the ships. And this, with 
our superiority of numbers, we certainly could 
have effected ; though no doubt, it would have 
been a bloody business, if they had not surren- 
dered, as I think they would. But when, as I was 
obliged, I laid this before the Council and Repre- 
sentatives, they not only found a thousand objec- 
tions to it, but absolutely restrained me; and I 
could not have got a man that would have gone on 
what they called so desperate a scheme. Hence 
was I under a necessity of proceeding in the poor, 
slow, and unsoldier-like manner, which not only 
gave them an opportunity to escape, but has 
taught them to despise us. There is no forming 
an idea of the importance of such a stroke at that 
juncture. If anything upon earth could have 
made America independent and glorious, that was 
the golden opportunity. I confess to you, I had 
worked my imagination up to such a pitch of high 
expectation, that my disappointment has dispirited 
me in a manner I never can recover. For, from 
that moment, I have despaired of our ever doing 
any thing truly great. Any little gleams of suc- 
cess, or fairer prospects we have since had, serve 
but to make our inferiority the more conspicuous. 
For what incidents can fall out to aggrandize us, 
who can be made great only by great and spirited 

efforts, 



53 

efforts, when we have shewn that we wanted both 
the understanding and the virtue to purchase to 
ourselves immortal glory on better and cheaper 
terms than ever we can hope hereafter to have it? 
But, the worst remains yet to be told. Some of 
those very men who were the most forward to 
thwart me in this measure, had discovered a differ- 
ent way of thinking on other occasions: and, I am 
persuaded that were the question put to them now, 
as to this city, and the southern regiments, I should 
not hear a dissentient voice. But let me spare you. * 

* Congress, and individual members of that body, did not hesitate to make 
suggestions to Washington on military matters, to his no small discomfort, 
as a suggestion from such a source might be regarded as an order. On Oc- 
tober 3d, 1775, Congress had adopted a resolution authorizing Washington 
to offer an encouragement to the soldiers in case of an attack upon Boston, 
but a council of the general officers decided that an attack at that time was 
not practicable. The idea, however, was ever present in Washington's 
mind, and was one of the questions submitted to the committee from Coiv- 
gress that visited the camp in October. Lynch, one of this committee, wrote 
to Washington in November: "I mean not to anticipate your determination, 
but only to approve your design to hover like an eagle over your prey, al- 
ways ready to pounce upon it when the proper time comes. I have not for- 
got your proposition relative to that city ; I try to pave the way for it, and 
wait for the season, as you do." Finally on December 22d, Congress passed a 
secret resolve that ' ' if General Washington and his council of war should be 
of opinion, that a successful attack may be made on the troops in Boston, 
he do it in any manner he may think expedient, notwithstanding the town 
and property in it may be destroyed." In acknowledging this resolution 
Washington gave assurance that he would attempt to put it in execution 
"the first moment I see a probability of success, and in such a way as a 
council of officers shall think most likely to produce it ; but if this should 
not happen as soon as you may expect, or my wishes prompt to, request 
that Congress will be pleased to advert to my situation, and do me the jus- 
tice to believe, that circumstances, and no want of inclination are the cause 
of delay." Washington to the President of Congress, 4 January, 1776. " Could 
I have foreseen the difficulties, which have come upon us ; could I have 
known, that such a backwardness would have been discovered in the old 

5 After 



54 

After all this, yon will again, I donbt not, as yon 
often liave, ask me, why I continne in a sitnation 
so disagreeable to me? I wish yon had forborne 
this qnestiou, the trnth being, that I neither am 

soldiers to the service, all the generals upon earth should not have convinced 
me of the propriety of delaj-ing an attack upon Boston till this time. WTien 
it can now be attempted, I will uot undertake to say ; but this much I 
will answer for, that uo opportunity can present itself earlier than my 
wishes." IVashinsion to Joseph Reed, i^Janwaxy, 1776. Thewaut of powder 
was a serious check upon any operations, oflfensive or defensive, and proved 
the most perplexing problem that Washington was called upon to solve. 
Again and again did he call upon Congress and the separate colonies for a 
supply of this most necessary article, and disappointed in obtaining it, saw 
himself condemned to inactivity. " Why will uot Congress forward part of 
the powder made in your pro-v-ince? Thej- seem to look upon this as the 
season for action, but will not furnish the means. I will not blame them. 
I dare say the demands upon them are greater than they can supply. The 
cause must be starved till our resources are greater, or more certain within 
ourselves." U'aslihigtoii to Reed, 10 Februar^■, 1776. At last, in February, he 
thought the conditions favorable for making an attack, as a broad expanse 
of ice afforded a comparatively safe passage from Dorchester Point and 
Roxbury to the city. In spite of an armj- much reduced in number, and in 
spite of ha^•ing uo powder with which to begin a regular cannonade and 
bombardment, Washington, on the i6th, laid the plan of assault before his 
general officers, and to his mortification it was almost nnanimouslj- disap- 
proved. Washington acquiesced in the decision with reluctance; for "from a 
thorough con\-ictiou of attempting something against the ministerial troops 
before a reinforcement should arrive, and while we were favored with the 
ice, I was not only ready, but willing and desirous of making the assault, 
under a firm hope, if the men would have stood by me, of a favorable issue, 
notwithstanding the enemy's advantage of ground, artillerj-, etc." Wash- 
ington to the President of Congress, iS February, 1776. And to Joseph Reed 
he wrote on the 26th: "I proposed it [an assault] in council; but behold, 
the' we had been waiting all the jear for this favorable event, the enter- 
prise was thought too dangerous. Perhaps it was; perhaps theirksomeness 
of my situation led me to undertake more than could be warranted by 
prudence. I did not think so, and I am sure yet, that the enterprise, if it 
had been undertaken with resolution, must have succeeded ; without it any 
would fail ; but it is now at an end, and I am preparing to take post on 
Dorchester, to trj- if the enemy will be so kind as to come out to us." 

As to a rumored intention on the part of Washington to burn New York, 
see his letter of August 23d, 1776, to the New York Convention. 

able, 



55 

able, nor very willing to answer it. My resolution 
to hold it out as long as I can is dictated by my 
feelings, which I neither can describe to you, nor 
wholly justify on paper ; but which, however, I 
find it impossible for me to disregard. — The eyes of 
all America, perhaps, of Europe, of the world, are 
fixed on me. It has been our policy, (and, at the 
time, I thought it well founded) to hold out false 
lights to the world. There are not an hundred 
men in America that know our true situation ; 
three-fourths of the Congress itself are ignorant of 
it ; — yourself excepted, there lives not a man at all 
acquainted with my peculiar circumstances. The 
world looks upon us as in possession of an army all 
animated with the pure flame of liberty, and de- 
termined to die rather than not be free. It is in 
possession of proofs, that it is so, under my own 
hand: — I have always so spoken of it, and I still 
do.* But, you know how remote, in my judg- 

* " It is in vain to expect that any more than a trifling part of this army 
will again engage in the service on the encouragement offered by Congress. 
When men find that their townsmen and companions are receiving twenty, 
thirty, and more dollars for a few months' service, which is truly the case,, 
it cannot be expected without using compulsion ; and to force them into 
the service would answer no valuable purpose. When men are irritated, 
and their passions inflamed, they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms ; but, 
after the first emotions are over, to expect among such people as compose 
the bulk of an army, that they are influenced by any other principles than 
those of interest, is to look for what never did, and I fear never will happen; 
the Congress will deceive themselves, therefore, if they expect it. A soldier, 
reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause he is engaged in, and the in- 
estimable rights he is contending for, hears you with patience, and ac- 
knowledges the truth of your obser\'ations, but adds that it is of no more 

ment. 



56 

ment, all this is from the truth, though I am not 
sure that there is another man in the army, besides 
myself, that thinks so. I should guess, however, 
that there are many. But, tied up as my own 
mouth is, it is little to be wondered at that theirs 
are so too, at least to me. — Thus circumstanced, 
can you point out a way in which it is possible for 
me to resign, just now as it were, on the eve of 

importance to him than to others. The officer makes you the same reply, 
with this further remark, that his pay will not support him, and he cannot 
ruin himself and family to serve his countrj', when every member of the 
community is equally interested, and benefitted by his labors. The few, 
therefore, who act upon principles of disinterestedness, comparatively 
speaking, are no more than a drop in the ocean." Washington to Congress, 
24 September, 1776. 

" Notwithstanding all the public virtue which is ascribed to these people, 
there is no nation under the sun (that I ever came across) pay greater ador- 
ation to money than they do." Washington to Joseph Reed, 10 February, 
1776. 

" Such a dearth of public spirit, and want of virtue, such stock-jobbing, 
and fertility in all the low arts to obtain advantages of one kind or another, 
in this great change of military arrangement, I never saw before, and 
pray God I may never be witness to again." Washi?igton to Joseph Reed, 28 
November, 1776. 

"I know— but to declare it, unless to a friend, maybe an argument of 
vanity— the integrity of my own heart. I know the unhappy predicament 
I stand in ; I know that much is expected of me ; I know, that without 
men, without arms, without ammunition, without anj-thing fit for the accom- 
modation of a soldier, little is to be done ; and, which is mortifying, I know 
that I cannot stand justified to the world without exposing my own weak- 
ness, and injuring the cause by declaring my wants, which I am deter- 
mined not to do, further than unavoidable necessity brings every man ac- 
quainted with them." Washington to Joseph Reed, 10 February, 1776. 

" To have the eyes of the whole continent fixed with anxious expectation 
of hearing some great event, and to be restrained in every military operation 
for want of the necessary means of carrying it on, is not very pleasing, 
especially as the means used to conceal my weakness from the enemy, 
conceals it also from our friends, and adds to their wonder." Washington 
to the President of Congress, 18 February, 1776. 

action. 



57 

action, without imputation of cowardice? There is 
no such way. Besides, diffident and desponding as I 
am, how do I know, that it is not so with those 
we have to oppose? they certainly have reason. 
The events of war depend on a thousand minutiae, 
without the ken of a mere bystander. I know 
not that the commander of the armies of the low- 
countries, could his heart have been read as you do 
mine, had not the same fears, and the same causes 
for them that I have. You learn not this from the 
history; nor was it to be expected you should. 
Yet, he succeeded at last. And, who knows, what 
an over-ruling providence, who often brings about 
the greatest revolutions by the most unlikely 
means, may intend for America? If it be the will 
of God, that America should be independent of 
Great Britain, and that this be the reason for it, 
even I and these unhopeful men around may not 
be thought unworthy instruments in his hands. 
And, should we succeed, we are heroes, and im- 
mortalized beyond even those of former times. 
Whereas disgrace only, and intolerable infamy 
await our retreat.* In this persuasion, I resolve to 

♦ I solemnly protest that a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds 
a year would not induce me to undergo what I do ; and after all, perhaps, 
to lose my character, as it is impossible, under such a variety of distressing 
circumstances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectations, or even 
to the expectation of those who employ me, as they will not make proper 
allowances for the difficulties their own errors have occasioned." IVash 
ngton to his brother, 19 November, 1776. 

go 



58 

go on, contented, with the glorious King William, 
to save my country, or die in the last ditch. I am, 
my dear lyund, your Faithful Friend and Servant, 

G. W. 



TO JOHN PARKE CUSTIS, ESQ., AT THE HON. BENE- 
DICT CALVERT'S, ESQ., MOUNT AIRY, 

maryland.* 

1 8 June, 1776, 
My Very Dear Jack, 

You have exceedingly obliged me by your letter 
which I received by yesterday's post. It discovers 
an attention to the great affairs now carrying on, 
and an information concerning them, which I own 
to you, I had not given you credit for. Your youth 
and inexperience pleaded your excuse : and though 
you gave me no opportunity to praise you for any 
active exertions, I paid you no ordinary compli- 
ments, in my own mind, for your modesty in for- 
bearing to meddle with things which it was no re- 
proach to you to confess, were out of your reach. 
Considering your rank, fortune and education, 
whenever it is proper for you to come forward on 
the theatre, it must not be any underpart that you 
act. You are, therefore, certainly in the right to 
decline taking any part at all, till you are fit for a 
first and a leading character. And you have my 
full and perfect approbation of your resolution to 

♦John Parke Custis was bom in November, 1754. He died in October, 
1781, of a camp fever. 

(59) persist 



6o 

persist in your purpose, for the present, not to ac- 
cept of any rank, either civil or military. I see 
your anxiety, lest the present opportunity for sig- 
nalizing your just love for your country should, by 
your not unnecessary cautions, be suffered to slip 
by you, unimproved. Your ardor is commendable ; 
and far be it from me to discourage in you a spirit 
I so much love. But, whilst you retain these hon- 
orable principles, there is little danger of your 
wanting opportunities to call them forth into action. 
The momentous enterprize in which your country 
is engaged is not to be accomplished in this, or 
that year. If, in no longer a period than the siege 
of Troy, we bring all our mighty schemes to bear, 
it will be the greatest work that ever was perfected 
in so little a time. You have set your heart, you 
tell me, on a military employment. This is the 
usual bent of young men ; and, as it was my own, 
it will be with an ill grace, that I reprehend it in 
you. But, with the experience that I have had of 
it, I should be wanting in that love and esteem I 
owe you, should I hesitate to tell you that, as your 
father, there is not a profession you could have 
chosen in which I should not more cordially have 
concurred with you. Yet, I love arms ; I am 
married to my sword, as well as to your most ami- 
able mother : and herein is my witness, that I am 
in earnest when I say, death alone shall divorce 
me from either. I am not so blindly devoted, 

however, 



6i 

however, to my profession, as not to see by how 
frail a tenure I hold the little reputation I have in 
it. As a statesman, as a senator, it is in the general, 
sufficient that you mean well, that you are careful 
to qualify yourself to form a right judgment of the 
true interests of your country, and that, with the 
honest impartiality of a free man, you have still 
exerted your best endeavors to promote those in- 
terests. But, with a soldier, success alone is merit; 
and there is nothing that can atone for the want of 
it. The world is a worse judge of military matters, 
than any other. It would astonish you to find, on 
a minute comparison, how very little difference 
there was in the skill and spirit which guided 
Braddock and Wolfe in the last actions of their 
lives. But, how different has been their fate ! — I 
think, I am not without some talents for the line 
of life, which has fallen to my lot. But, opposed 
as I must be by men, probably, of infinitely superior 
skill, and encompassed moreover with such hosts 
of other difficulties and discouragements as I am, 
it is not mine to command success.* And, when 

♦The reader of Washington's letters cannot fail to notice how few are the 
references to matters of history, and how seldom there is any evidence of 
an acquaintance with even the writings generally understood at that time. 
A single instance, that I have met with, may here be cited. In a letter to 
Deputy Governor Cooke, 29 October, 1775, he wrote : " But it is not in our 
power to command success, though it is always our duty to deserve it," and 
in one to Colonel Benedict Arnold, 5 December, 1775, he said : " It is not in 
the power of any man to command success, but you have done more, you 
have deserved it." As is well known, the lines occur in Addison's Cato : — 

either 



62 

either my contemporaries, or future historians, 
shall sit in judgment on my conduct, if, haply, ill- 
fortune should overtake me, seeing our miscarriages 
only, and having neither curiosity nor ability to 
investigate the thousand causes which led to them, 
am I not too well warranted in concluding, that 
they will be attributed to mis-management? Have 
I not then reason to wish that your choice had 
fallen on the quieter but not less important calling 
of a private gentleman ; in which, as a senator, you 
might have given proof of your abilities, in a way, 
in which fortune would not have had so great a 
share? But, notwithstanding all this, and if after 
all, you be irrevocably determined to try your for- 
tune in the field, and you can gain your mother's 
and your wife's consent, I here give it you under 
my hand, that you shall not want mine. Most 
certainly there cannot be a more honorable employ- 
ment: and if, (which Heaven avert,) Fortune should 
declare against you, my consolation will be that, I 
can assure myself, you will deserve to be successful. 
I will, on the opening of the next campaign, pro- 
cure you an appointment to the command of a 



" 'Tis not in mortals to command success, 
But we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it." 

In a letter written to Mrs. George William Fairfax from the camp at Rays- 
town, on the Bouquet expedition against Duquesue, in September, 1758, 
Washington wrote: "I should think our time more agreeably spent, believe 
me, in playing a part in Cato, with the company you mention, and myself 
doubly happy in being the Jubato such a Marcia as you must make." 

regiment, 



63 

regiment, either here, or in the southern wing. 
And, if my opinion may have any weight with 
you, you will, for many reasons, prefer the being 
stationed in some of the southern states. There is 
no fear of its being an inactive station. I have 
little expectation that this year will close with 
aught considerably decisive on either side: and, if 
our enemies be able to hold out another campaign, 
it is most likely, their policy will be, by means of 
their naval superiority, to carry on a kind of an 
incursive war, by making unexpected descents in 
different and distant places. Meanwhile, permit 
me to press you to persevere in your attention to 
military matters. The manual exercise, which 
you were so justly dilligent to learn, whilst I was 
with you, is but the A. B. C. of your profession.* 
Neither will you profit so much as you might 
reasonably expect, from the study of those authors, 
who have written professedly on the art of war. 
This is like the learning the game of Whist by 
reading Hoyle. I have been witness to the mis- 
chievous effects of it. A man, book-learned only, 
does very well in the still scenes of marchings and 
encampments. But when, in the various bustles 

* " As to the manual exercise, the evolutions and manceuvers of a regi- 
ment, with other knowledge necessary to a soldier, you will acquire them 
from those authors who have treated upon these subjects, among whom 
Bland (the newest edition) stands foremost ; also an Essay on the Art of 
War ; Instructions for Officers, lately published at Philadelphia ; the Parti- 
san ; Young, and others." Washington to Col. Woodford, lo November, 1776. 

of 



64 

of actual war, a cause arises, as must often be the 
case, not described in his books, he is utterly at a 
loss. I would not, however, have you to under- 
stand me as if I meant to discourage your reading 
these books at all ; so far from it, I would have you 
read them very often, and make yourself acquainted 
with the subject, as much as you can in theory. 
My caution meant only to guard you against plac- 
ing too much reliance on them. Their best com- 
mentators, next to your own experience, will be 
the historians of Greece and Rome ; which it is 
your happiness to be able to read in the originals. 
But the main and most essential qualification is an 
high sense of honor, an elevation of sentiment and 
a certain dignified stile of behavior, that distin- 
guishes, or should distinguish, a soldier from every 
other man. It is a shame indeed, if he who un- 
dertakes to command others, has not first learned 
to command himself : I will not endure anything 
mean or sordid either in your principles, or your 
manners; having determined, if it were left with 
me, to be as strict and rigorous in these particulars, 
as were the knights of old, when a candidate was 
to be invested with the orders of chivalry. I can- 
not dissociate the ideas between a soldier and a 
gentleman : and however common it may be to 
give that last appellation to persons of every station 
and every character, it yet conveys to me an idea 
of worths which I want words to express. I am 

not 



65 

not solicitous to pay you compliments, even by im- 
plication; but, I may certainly be permitted to say, 
that if I had not known you to be a gentleman, 
you never should have had my consent to your be- 
coming a soldier. 

Your observations on this important contest are 
just and accurate, and discover a reach of thought, 
and a penetration beyond what I had expected of 
you. What you say on the subject of independency 
is perfectly judicious, and, no doubt, highly worthy 
of all our most serious consideration. Yet, I have 
a prsesentiment, that it will take place, and speed- 
ily. Open and unreserved as my conduct toward 
you has ever been, I have no reluctance to confess 
to you, that the measure is diametrically opposite 
to my judgment : for I have not yet despaired of an 
honorable reconciliation ;* and whilst I can enter- 

* " with respect to myself, I have never entertained an idea of an accom- 
modation, since I heard of the measures which were adopted in conse- 
quence of the Bunker's Hill fight. The King's speech has confirmed the 
sentiments I entertained upon the news of that affair ; and, if every man 
was of my mind, the ministers of Great Britain should know, in a few 
words, upon what issue the cause should be put. I would not be deceived 
by artful declarations, nor specious pretences ; nor would I be amused by 
unmeaning propositions ; but in open undisguises, and manly terms pro- 
claim our wrongs, and our resolution to be redressed. I would tell them, 
that we had borne much, that we had long and ardently sought for recon- 
ciliation upon honorable terms, that it had been denied us, that all our at- 
tempts after peace had proved abortive, and had been grossly misrepre- 
sented, that we had done everything which could be expected from the best 
subjects, that the spirit of freedom beat too high in us to submit to slavery, 
and that, if nothing else could satisfy a tyrant and his diabolical ministry, 
we are determined to shake off all connexions with a state so unjust and 
unnatural. This I would tell them, not under covert, but in words as clear 
as the sun in its meridian brightness." IVaskington to Reed, lo February, 
1776. 

tain 



66 

tain but an hope of that, both interest and inclina- 
tion lead me to prefer it to every thing else upon 
earth. Human affairs are oddly ordered: to obtain 
what you most wish for, you must often make use 
of means you the least approve of As in bargain- 
ing, to obtain a fair and equal price, you must 
frequently ask more than you wish to take. I do 
not really wish for independence : I hope there are 
few who do : but, I have never heard the reasonings 
of those, who have proved that, if we did not de- 
clare for it, we should fail to obtain the constitu- 
tional subordination to which we are entitled, 
fairly refuted. I would not have you, therefore, 
hastily conclude that if, in this struggle, we fall 
short of everything we have claimed ] we are 
worsted : perhaps the very worst thing that could 
befal us, is that we should gain all. I do assure 
you that, in my opinion, the next misfortune to 
that of being thrust from our just rank in the order 
of freemen, would be the giving us up, and leaving 
us to ourselves. But, this Great Britain will never 
do, Voluntarily : for, if ever she does, whatever may 
become of us, from that moment, she may date the 
commencement of her own downfall. 

I am exceedingly happy in the becoming moder- 
ation which you observe and endeavor to introduce 
towards the unhappy men whose political creed 
differ from ours. But for this blot in her scutcheon, 
thrown on her by too many of her rash and un- 
worthy 



67 

worthy advocates, by a contrary conduct, this 
effort of America would have done her honor, even 
though she had failed. I am shocked at the In- 
stances of intolerance I daily hear of, and have no 
power to prevent. But, like the other evils of war, 
it is a calamity that unavoidably grows out of such 
a convulsion ; and one might as well hope to stem 
the fury of a torrent, as to give laws to an enraged 
people. It is, however, the duty of every true 
friend to liberty, by every gentle and conciliatory 
means in his power to restrain it. And, I am 
happy to find this sentiment daily becoming more 
general amongst us. All things considered, I can- 
not but think it not a little to our honor that 
things have not been carried to still a greater 
height in this way. 

Remember me affectionately to Nelly; and tell 
her, that though I should be most happy to see her, 
I may not hope for that happiness speedily : as the 
din of arms, I imagine, would be but unpleasing 
entertainment to her ; and I have little prospect of 
any leisure, at least, before we go into winter 
quarters. I hope Mr. Calvert, and all the family 
are well: I beg to be remembered to them. I will 
write to your mother in a few days. You are very 
good in leaving her alone as little as may be. 
Continue to write to me frequently, freely, and 
fully : the hearing of my dearest friends and fam- 
ily's welfare being the only true happiness I have 

any 



68 

any chance to enjoy amidst the perpetual hurry in 
which I live. 

I am, my dear Jack, 

Your very aifectionate Friend and Father, 

GEO. WASHINGTON. 



to the hon. lady washington, etc.* 

24 June, 1776. 
My Dearest Life and Love, 

You have hurt me, I know not how much, by 
the insinuation in your last, that my letters to you 
have lately been less frequent, because I have felt 
less concern for you. The suspicion is most unjust; 
— may I not add, it is most unkind ? Have we 
lived, now almost a score of years, in the closest 
and dearest conjugal intimacy to so little purpose 
that, on an appearance only of inattention to you, 
and which you might have accounted for in a 
thousand ways more natural and more probable, 
you should pitch upon that single motive which 
alone is injurious to me? I have not, I own, wrote 
so often to you as I wished and as I ought. But 
think of my situation, and then ask your heart, if 
I be without excuse. We are not, my dearest, in 
circumstances the most favourable to our happiness: 

*The courtesy shown by General Howe on a later occasion, is worthy of 
record. "The enclosed letter having been intercepted and brought to lue, 
I am happy to return it, without the least attempt being made to discover 
any part of its contents." Howe to IVashitiglon, ii November, 1776. 

" I am to acknowledge the honor of your favor of the nth, ultimo, and to 
thank you for the polite return of my letter to Mrs. Washington." li-'ash- 
ington to Howe, i December, 1776. 

6 (69) but 



70 

but let us not, I beseech you, idly make them 
worse by indulging suspicions and apprehensions 
which minds in distress are but too apt give way 
to. I never was, as you have often told me, even 
in my better and more disengaged days, so attentive 
to the little punctilios of friendship, as, it may be, 
became me : but, my heart tells me, there never 
was a moment in my life, since I first knew you, 
in which it did not cleave and cling to you with 
the warmest affection : and it must cease to beat, 
ere it can cease to wish for your happiness, above 
any thing on earth. 

I congratulate you most cordially on the fair 
prospect of recovery of your amiable daughter-in- 
law;* nor can I wonder, that this second loss of a 
little one should affect you. I fear the fatigues of 
the journey, and the perpetual agitations of a camp, 
were too much for her. They are, however, both 
young and healthy ; so that there can be little 
doubt of their soon repairing the loss.f 

And now will my dearest love permit me, a little 
more earnestly than I have ever yet done, to press 
you to consent to that so necessary, so safe and so 
easy, though so dreadful a thing — the being inocu- 
lated? It was always adviseable ; but at this 

* Nelly Calvert, second daughter of Benedict Calvert. The marriage took 
place on the 3d of February, 1774. 

fThe children of John Parke Custis were : Elizabeth Parke, born 1776 ; 
Eleanor Parke, 1779; and George Washington Parke, 1781. 

juncture 



71 

juncture it seems to be almost absolutely necessary. * 
I am far from sure, that that restless madman, our 
quondam ,^overnor,t from the mere lust of doing- 
mischief, will not soon betake himself to the carry- 

*\Vhat inoculation meant in those days may be conjectured from the fol- 
lowing report made by the Board of War to the Continental Congress, 20 
February, 1777: "That the Assembly of the State of Maryland be re- 
quested to deliver to Dr. McKensie, so much medicines of the following De- 
nominations as he shall want and they can spare, to enable him to inocu- 
late the Continental troops in this town, in the following proportions for 
one hundred men : 

Six ounces Calomel. 

Two pounds Jallop. 

Three pounds Nitre. 

Elix'. Vitriol. 

One pound Peruvian Bark. 

One pound Virginia Snake Root. 
At the request of Congress Washington had come to Philadelphia, arriv- 
ing there on the afternoon of Thursday, May 23d. It was then that Mrs. 
Washington had determined to be inoculated for the small pox. Hancock 
had invited both the General and Mrs. Washington to stay at his house in 
Arch Street. " As the house I live in is large and roomy, it will be entirely 
in your power to live in that manner you should wish. Mrs. Washington 
may be as retired as she pleases while under the inoculation, and Mrs. 
Hancock will esteem it an honor to have Mrs. Washington inoculated in 
her house." Hancock to IVashingion, 21 Maj', 1776. This invitation does 
not appear to have been accepted, and from a sentence in Hancock's letter 
we are led to suppose that they went to the house of a " Mr. Randolph," 
who lived on Chestnut street. Mrs. Washington had reached the city before 
the General, for on the 31st she was in the "thirteenth day, and she has 
very few postules." Washington to his brother, 31 May, 1776. The tradi- 
tion is that Mrs. Washington returned to Mount Vernon, when the British 
fleet had sailed from Boston, and it was from that place that she came to 
Philadelphia to undergo inoculation. We may thus set the dates against 
the plausibility of the letter, as it is absurd to suppose that Washington 
would raise the question of inoculation a month after it had actually been 
tried, and tried successfully. On July 24th, Washington wrote to Ciistis : 

" Mrs. Washington is now at Philadelphia, and has thoughts of returning 
to Virginia, as there is little or no prospect of her being with me any part 
of this summer." 

tl,ord Dunmore. 

ins: 



72 

ing on a praedatory war in our rivers. And as 
Potomack will certainly be thought most favorable 
for his purposes, as affording him scope to keep 
without the reach of annoyance, I have little 
reason to flatter myself that it would not be par- 
ticularly pleasing to him, to vent his spite at my 
house. Let him; it would affect me only as it 
would affect you; and, for this reason, among 
others, I wish you out of his reach. Yet I think I 
would not have you quit your house, professedly, 
from an apprehension of a visit from him. An 
appearance of fearfulness and timidity, even in a 
woman of my family, might have a bad effect; but, 
I must be something more or less than man, not to 
wish you out of the way of a danger, which, to say 
the least, must be disagreeable to you, and could do 
good to no one. All this makes for your going to 
Philadelphia, a place of perfect security; and it 
would almost be worth while to be inoculated, if it 
were only for the fair pretence it furnishes you with 
of quitting Virginia, at a time when I could not 
but be exceedingly uneasy at your remaining in it. 
But I flatter myself, any further argument will be 
unnecessary, when I shall add, as I now do, that 
till you have had the smallpox, anxiously as else I 
should wish for it, I never can think of consenting 
to your passing the winter here in quarters with 
me.* 

* The writer was drawing upon his memory, perhaps more than upon his 

I would 



73 

I would have Limd Washington immediately 
remove all the unmarried and suspicious of the 
slaves, to the quarters in Frederick. The Harvest- 
ing must be got in by hirelings. Let him not keep 
any large stock of grain trod out, especially at the 
mill, or within the reach of water carriage ; and in 
particular, let as little as may be, be left at Clifton's 
quarters. It will not be too late, even in the first 
week of July, to sow the additional supply of hemp 
and flax-seed, which Mr. Mifilin * has secured for 
me in Philadelphia; and which I hope will be with 
you before this letter. For obvious reasons, you 
will not sow it on the island, nor by the water 
side. But I hope you will have a good account of 

imagination. When in October, 1775, Washington in^ated his wife to come 
to the camp at Cambridge, it is ven,- probable that he may have urged her 
then to undergo inoculation, for the disease was then in the soldierj-. Such 
an idea may have suggested the reference in the letter, and, also, to the 
same period belongs this suggestion of a " predatory war in our rivers," by 
Lord Dunmore. Lund had written to the General in the fall of 1775: " Many 
people have made a stir about Mrs. Washington's continuing at Mount 
Vernon, but I cannot think there is any danger. The thought I believe 
originated in Alexandria ; from thence it got to Loudoun, and I am told the 
people of Loudoun talk of sending a guard to conduct her to Berkeley, with 
some of their principal men to persuade her to leave this place and accept 
their offer. Mr. John Augustine Washington wrote, pressing her to leave 
Mount Vernon. She does not believe herself in danger. Lord Dunmore 
will hardly himself venture up this river ; nor do I believe he will send ou 
that errand. Surely her old acquaintence, the attorney, who with his 
family is on board his ship, would prevent his doing any act of that kind 
You may depend I will be watchful, and upon the least alarm persuade 
her to remove." 

Mrs Washington soon after left Mount Vernon, to join the General at 
Cambridge, in company with Mrs. Gates, her son Parke Custis and his wife, 
and Warner Lewis. They arrived in camp December nth. 

* Spelled Mitfliu iu Bew. 

your 



74 

your crop on the Ohio. If Bridgey * continues re- 
fractory and riotous, though I know you can ill 
spare him, let him by all means be sent off, as I 
hope Jack Custis's boy Joe already is, for his sauci- 
ness, at Cambridge. 

My attention is this moment called off to the 
discovery, or pretended discovery, of a most wild 
and daring plot.f It is impossible, as yet, to de- 
velope the mystery in which it either is, or is sup- 
posed to be involved. Thus much only I can find 
out with certainty, that it will be a fine field for a 
war of lies on both sides. No doubt it will make a 
good deal of noise in the country; and there are 
who think it useful to have the minds of the people 
kept constantly on the fret by rumors of this sort. 
For my part, I who am said to be the object prin- 
cipally aimed at in it, find myself perfectly at my 
ease; and I have mentioned it to you only from an 
apprehension that, hearing it from others and not 
from me, you might imagine I was in the midst of 
danger that I knew not of. 

The perpetual solicitude ot your poor heart about 
me, is certainly highly flattering to me; yet I 
should be happy to be able to quiet your fears. 
Why do you complain of my reserve? Or, how 

* Probably intended for Breechy. In February 1760 Washington noted in 
his diary -almanac : " Breechy was laid up this morning with pains in his 
breast and head, and attended with a fever." 

fThis refers to the so-called Hickey plot. See Minutes of a Conspiracy 
against the Liberties of America. 

could 



75 

conld you imagine that I distrusted either your 
prudence or your fidelity? I have the highest 
opinion of them both. But why should I teaze 
you with tedious details of schemes and views 
which are perpetually varying ; and which there- 
fore might, not improbably mislead, where I meant 
to inform you? Suffice it that I say, what I have 
often before told you, that, as far as I have the con- 
troul of them, all our preparations of war, aim only 
at peace. Neither do I, at this moment, see the 
least likelihood of their being any considerable 
military operations this season ; and, if not in this 
season, certainly in no other. It is impossible to 
suppose that, in the leisure, and quiet of winter 
quarters, men will not have the virtue to listen to 
the dictates of plain common sense and sober 
reason. The only true interest of both sides is re- 
conciliation ; nor can there be a point in the world 
clearer, than that both sides must be losers by war, 
in a manner which even peace will not soon com- 
pensate for. We must, at last, agree, and be 
friends ; for we cannot live without them, and they 
will not without us : and a bystander might well 
be puzzled to find out, why as good terms cannot 
be given and taken now, as when we shall have 
well nigh ruined each other by the mutual madness 
of cutting one another's throats. For all these 
reasons, which cannot but be as obvious to the 
English commissioners, and ours, as they are to 

me, 



76 

me, I am at a loss to imagine how any thing can 
arise to obstruct a negotiation, and, of consequence, 
a pacification. You, who know my heart, know 
that there is not a wish nearer to it than this is; 
but I am prepared for every event, one only ex- 
cepted — I mean a dishonourable peace. Rather 
than that, let me, though it be with the loss of 
every thing else I hold dear, continue this horrid 
trade, and, by the most unlikely means, be the 
unworthy instrument of preserving political secur- 
ity and happiness to them, as well as to ourselves. 
— Pity this cannot be accomplished, without fixing 
on me that sad name, Rebel. I love my King ; 
you know I do : a soldier, a good man cannot but 
love him. How peculiarly hard then is our fortune 
to be deemed traitors to so good a King ! But, I 
am not without hopes, that even he will yet see 
cause to do me justice : posterity, I am sure, will. 
Mean while, I comfort myself with the reflection 
that this has been the fate of the best and bravest 
men, even of the Barons who obtained Magna 
.Charta, whilst the dispute was pending. This, 
however, anxiously as I wish for it, it is not mine 
to command : I see my duty, that of standing up 
for the liberties of my country; and whatever diffi- 
culties and discouragements lie in my way, I dare 
not shrink from it; and I rely on that Being, who 
has not left to us the choice of duties, that, whilst 
I conscientiously discharge mine, I shall not finally 

lose 



77 

lose my reward. If I really am not a bad man, I 
shall not long be so set down.* 

Assure yourself, I will pay all possible attention 
to your recommendations. But happy as I am in 
an opportunity of obliging you, even in the small- 
est things, take it not amiss, that I use the freedom 
with you to whisper in your ear, to be sparing of 
them. You know how I am circumstanced: 
hardly the promotion of a subaltern is left to me.f 
And, free and independent as I am, I resolve to 
remain so. I owe the Congress no obligations for 
any personal favours done to myself; nor will I run 
in debt to them for favours to others. Besides, I 
am mortified to have to ask of them, what, in sound 
policy (if other motives had been wanting) they 
ought to have granted to me, unasked. I cannot 
describe to you the inconveniences this army suffers 
for want of this consequence being given to its 

*" The reflection on my situation, and that of the army, produces many an 
uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know 
the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts ; fewer still will believe, 
if any disaster happens to these lines, from what causes it flows. I have 
often thought how much happier I should have been, if, instead of accept- 
ing of a command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my 
shoulder and entered the ranks, or, if I could have justified the measure to 
posterity and my own conscience, had retired to the back countrj', and 
lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these and many 
other difficulties, which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously be- 
believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the ej'es of our en- 
emies." IVashinglon io Joseph Reed, 14 January, 1776. 

t" I have no friend whom I want to bring in, nor any person with whom I 
am in the least connected, that I wish to promote." IVashinglon to the 
Council 0/ Massachusetts Bay, 10 January, 1776. 

commander 



78 

commander in chief. But, as these might be in- 
creased, were my peculiar situation in this respect 
generally known, I forbear; only enjoining you a 
cautious silence on this head. — In a regular army, 
our Virginia young men, would certainly, in 
general, make the best officers; but I regret that 
they have not now put it in my power justly to pay 
them this compliment. They dislike their north- 
ern allies; and this dislike is the source of infinite 
mischiefs and vexations to me. In the many dis- 
putes and quarrels of this sort which we have had, 
one thing has particularly struck me. My country- 
men are not inferior in understanding; and are cer- 
tainly superior in that distinguished spirit and high 
sense of honour which should form the character of 
an officer. Yet, somehow or other, it for ever 
happens, that in every altercation, they are proved 
to be in the wrong; and they expect of me atten- 
tions and partialities which it is not in my power 
to shew them. 

Let me rely that your answer to this will be 
dated in Philadelphia. If I am not very busily 
engaged, (which, I hope may not be the case,) 
perhaps I may find ways and means to pay you a 
visit of a day or two ; but this I rather hint as 
what I wish, than what I dare bid you expect. If 
you still think the fragments of the set of greys I 
bought of Lord Bottetourt unequal to the journey, 
let Lund Washington sell them, singly, or other- 
wise 



79 

wise as he can to the best advantage, and purchase 
a new set of bays. I could, as you desire, get them 
here, and perhaps on better terms; but, I have a 
notion, whether well or ill founded I know not, 
that they never answer well in Virginia. I beg to 
be affectionately remembered to all our friends and 
relations; and that you will continue to believe me 
to be 

Your mosi faithful and tender Husband. 

G. W.* 

* "The letter said to be the General's, is partly genuine and partly spur- 
ious. Those who metamorphosed the intercepted original committed an 
error in point of time, for Mrs. Washington was with the General in New 
York at the date of it." John Laurens to his father, 23 January, 1778. 

Laurens was at this time a member of the General's family. 



TO MR. LUND WAvSHINGTON, AT MOUNT VERNON, 
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 

New York, July the i6th, 1776. 
Dear Lund, 

We are still going on with all imaginable brisk- 
ness and success with our works, which, I think 
are already impregnable. It would really astonish 
you to see the progress we have made. I do not 
believe that all history can furnish a precedent of 
so much being done in so little a time, or, in so 
masterly a manner, where you had so little right 
to look for consummate skill.* If in every thing 
else, we could but come up to our exertions in 
these fortifications, I should hardly know how to 
doubt the judgment of those who think that we 
may bid defiance to the world. But, I know not 
how it is, I am diffident of every thing. Whilst 
almost every body else seem to have persuaded 

* " I believe I may with great truth affirm, that no man perhaps since the 
first institution of armies, ever commanded one under more difficult cir- 
cumstances." Washington to his brother, 31 March, 1776. 

" It is not in the pages of history, perhaps, to furnish a case like ours. To 
maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy, for six months together, 
without [powder] and at the same time to disband one array, and recruit 
another, within that distance of twenty-odd British regiments, is more, 
probably, than ever was attempted." Washington to the Pjesident of Con- 
gress, 4 J.inuary, 1776. 

(80) themselves 



8i 

themselves that we have nothing to fear, I alone 
torment myself with thinking that everything is 
against ns. Even from these very works which 
have inspired us with such confidence, I anticipate 
only misfortune and disgrace. By this time the 
die is cast, and America is authoritatively declared 
free and independent. And, unless we can be con- 
tented to appear ridiculous in the eyes of all the 
world, we must resolve to support this declaration 
by a suitable conduct ; — we must fight our way to 
freedom and independencey; for, in no other way, 
shall we be permitted to obtain it, farther than in 
words. * 

A war, therefore, and a most serious one, is now 
inevitable. Next to good finances, which it is not 
my province to provide for, a good army is, doubt- 
less, a main requisite to the carrying on of a suc- 
cessful war. And a good army is, by no means, 

* The Declaration reached Washington on the gth, and was announced in 
the General Orders of that date. 

"I perceive that Congress have been employed in deliberating on measures 
Of the most interesting nature. It is certain, that it is not with us to deter- 
mine in many instances what consequences will flow from our counsels ; 
but yet it behoves us to adopt such, as, under the smiles of a gracious and 
all-kind Providence, will be most likely to promote our happiness. I trust 
the late decisive part they have taken is calculated for that end, and will 
secure us that freedom and those privileges, which have been and are re- 
fused us, contrary to the voice of nature and the British constitution. 
Agreeably to the request of Congress, I caused the Declaration to be pro- 
claimed before all the army under my immediate command ; and have 
the pleasure to inform them that the measure seemed to have their most 
hearty assent ; the expressions and behaviour, both of officers and men, 
testifying their warmest approbation of it." To the President of Congress, lo 
July, 1776. 

secured 



82 

secured, as some seem to reckon, by securing a 
large number of men. We want soldiers; and be- 
tween these, and raw, undisciplined men, there is 
a wide difference.* The question then is, how are 
these raw and undisciplined men to be formed into 
good soldiers? And I am free to give it as my 
opinion, that so far from contributing to this, will 
strongholds, fortified posts, and deep intrenchments 
be found, that they will have a direct contrary 
effect. To be a soldier is to be inured to, and 
familiar with danger; to dare to look your enemy 
in the face, unsheltered and exposed to their fire, 
and even when repulsed, to rally again with un- 
diminished spirit. The Indian maxim is, that it is 
equally your duty to take care of yourself and to 
annoy your enemy. To a general, this may not be 
an unusual caution; but I will venture to assert, 
that whenever a private sentinel allows himself to 
act on this principle, the odds are, that, in the 
moment of trial, in his exceeding solicitude not to 
forget the former, the latter will be but little 
attended to. Now, what I ask, are all these 
mighty ditches and breast-works, but so many les- 
sons and admonitions to our men of what prodigious 

*In a letter to Reed (lo February, 1776), Washington used the words "raw 
and uudisclipined troops." Hancock spoke of an "undisciplined band of 
husbandmen," which under Washington's rule, had "in the course of a few 
months become soldiers." " They were indeed," Washington feelingly 
echoed, "a band of undiscipined husbandmen." H'ashingloti to the Ptesi- 
dent 0/ Congress, 18 April, 1776. 

importance 



83 

importance it is to take care of themselves? It 
would be almost worth our while to be defeated, if 
it were only to train us to stand fire, and to bear a 
reverse of fortune with a decent magnanimity. If 
it had not been for this ill-judged humour of fight- 
ing from behind a screen, the 19th of April,* the 
17th of Junef last year, might have been the 
happiest days America ever saw. All these things 
have I, again and again, represented to my mas- 
ters; I am ashamed to say, to how little purpose. 
They return me answers and instructions, which, 
though I cannot refute, have not yet convinced 
what I would call the feelings of my own mind.| 

♦Lexington. 

t Bunker's Hill. 

J "I think then we might have attacked 'em long before this and with 
success, were our troops differently constituted ; but the fatal persuasion 
has taken deep root in the minds of the Americans from the highest to the 
lowest order, that they are no match for the Regulars, but when covered by 
a wall or breastwork. This notion is still further strengthened by the end- 
less works we are throwing up. In short, unless we can remove the idea 
(and it must be done by degrees), no spirited action can be ventured on 
without the greatest risk." Major General Charles Lee to Benjamin Rush, 
19 September, 1775. 

"The account given of the behaviour of the men under General Mont- 
gomery, is exactly consonant to the opinion I have formed of these people. 
Place them behind a parapet, a breastwork, stone wall, or an5'thing that 
will afford them shelter, and from their knowledge of a firelock they will 
give a good account of their enemy ; but I am as well convinced, as if I 
had seen it, that thej' will not march boldly up to a work, nor stand 
exposed in a plain ; and j'et, if we are furnished with the means, and 
the weather will afford us a passage, and we can get in men, for these three 
things are necessary, something must be attempted. The men must be 
brought to face danger ; they cannot always have an intrenchment or a 
stone wall as a safeguard or shield." Washington to Joseph Reed, i Febru- 
ary, 1776. 

"To be plain, these people — among friends — are not to be depended 

This 



84 

This day week, * the enemy s fleet was first de- 
scried off Sandy Hook. They have been employed 
since then, in debarking their troops on Staten 
Island, where they are cantoned, as far as I can 
judge, in a very uncompact and unguarded man- 
ner ; I cannot exactly ascertain their number, but 
I have reason to believe, that they fall short of 
7000. t It is more extraordinary still, that I am 
not able to inform you of the exact number of 
forces under my own command.;}: I fancy, how- 
ever, we might bring into the field, at this place, 
double their number at a minute's warning; and 
with this superiority of numbers, making all pos- 
sible allowances for our other disadvantages, one 
would hope we might be able to give a good ac- 
count of them. You, who are sanguine in the 
extreme, and all impatience, will eagerly ask, why 
we suffered them to land unmolested, and to remain 
so ever since. What excellent expeditions your 
fire side generals can instantly plan and execute !§ 

upon if exposed ; and any man will fight well if he thinks himself in no 
danger. I do not apply this only to these people. I suppose it to be the 
case with all raw aud undisciplined troops. Washington to Joseph Reed, 10 
February, 1776. 

* Monday, July i. 

t He learned from four prisoners, who were taken on the 7th, that Howe 
had about ten thousand men. 

ton July 13 the returns showed 14,669 rank and file, of whom 10,319 were 
fit for duty. 

J " I observe what you say in respect to the ardor of the chimney comer 
heroes," Washington to Reed, 10 February, 1776. 

But 



85 

But yon forget that they are posted on an island, 
and that we have no way of coming at them unless 
they would lend us their ships and boats, which I 
have not presumed to ask of them. Aware, how- 
ever, of the importance of falling on them, whilst 
there is a chance of doing it with success, and e'er 
they become a match for us, by reinforcements, 
which they daily expect, I have formed a scheme, 
which at least, is plausible, and promises fair to be 
successful. I have submitted it to Congress ; and 
every moment expect their answer; and if they 
will but support me with alacrity, and in good 
earnest, my next, I trust, will not be quite so de- 
sponding. I expect to be all ready to put my plan 
in execution on Tuesday, or, at farthest, on 
Wednesday night : so that, probably, at the very 
moment you are reading this, we may be engaoed 
in a very dififerent service. You will, no doubt, be 
impatient to hear from me as soon as may be after 
Wednesday; and I will not disappoint you. 
Meanwhile, I shall not need to tell you, that end 
how it will, all that I freely chatter to you, is to 
remain a profound secret to everybody else.* 

•So far from meditating acting on the offensive, Washington was deplor- 
ing the weakness of his army, calling in militia and the Continental regi- 
ments from the Eastward to his aid, urging the formation of the Flying 
Camp, and even looking to the Indians of St. John's, Nova Scotia and 
Penobscot for assistance. On the nth he congratulated himself that'they 
had yet made no attack, waiting, as some deserters said, for the arrival of 
I.ord Howe. " We are strengthening ourselves as much as possible, and 
deem their staying out so long a fortunate circumstance, as it not only 

7 Doctor, 



86 

Doctor, now Brigadier-general Mercer, is liere, 
and is a great comfort to me.* Like myself, he 
wants experience ; bnt he is very shrewd and sen- 
sible, and though a Scotchman, is remarkably hu- 
mane and liberal. I have communicated the whole 
of my designs to him alone ; and I am not ashamed 
to own that I have received much assistance from 
him. I know not how it may turn out ; but 
though neither he nor I are very apt to be san- 
guine, we have both confessed to be so on this 
occasion. Animated, however, as I feel myself 
with the near prospect of at length doing some- 
thing, not unworthy the high rank to which I am 
raised, I own to you I take a serious pleasure in it, 
only as it flatters me with the hope of thereby 
obtaining a speedier and happier peace. Let us, 
since war must be our lot, distinguish ourselves as 
freemen should, in fields of blood : still remember- 
ing, however, that we fight not for conquest, but 
for liberty. 

I am with the truest esteem, Dear Lund, your 
faithful Friend and Servant. G. W. 

gives us an opportunity of advancing our works, but of getting some relief 
from the neighboring provinces." Washington to Major General Schuyler, 
II July, 1776. Not until the 12th was the proposition of making a general 
attack on the enemy's quarters on the island submitted to the general 
officers and judged to be inadvisable. 

* Mercer arrived in camp on Tuesday, July 2d, and the next morning was 
ordered into New Jersey to prevent, if possible, the enemy's crossing from 
Staten Island. 



TO MR. LUND WASHINGTON, &C. 

New York, July 8, 1777.* 
Dear Lund, 

How cruelly are all my hopes in one sad mo- 
ment, blasted and destroyed ! I am positively 
ordered to wait for the enemy in our lines ; f and 
lest I should be mad enough not to obey their 
mandates, not a single tittle of anything I had 
asked for, is granted. Thus has a second oppor- 
tunity of rendering my country an essential ser- 
vice, in the way of my profession, been unwisely 
and in the most mortifying manner denied me. I 
profess, I hardly know how to bear it : having to 
regret not only, that two opportunities, such as 
may never again occur, have been suffered to pass 
by us unimproved : but that none can happen, we 

* An evident misprint. 

t " You have had many rumors propagated among you which I suppose 
you know not how to account for. One was that Congress, the last sum- 
mer, had tied the hands of Geneial Washington, and would not let him 
fight, particularly on the White Plains. This report was totally ground- 
less." John Adams to his ivife, 6 April, 1777. 

Congress on September 30", directed Washington to take " especial 
care" in case he should find it necessary to quit New York, that " no damage 
be done to New York," which was interpreted by some to mean that the 
city was to be maintained at every hazard. Congress was obliged to ex- 
plain that such was not its intention. Journals of Congress, September 3d 
and loth ; IVashington to the President of Congress, September 2d, 8th, 14th. 

( 87 ) can 



88 

can improve. Managed as matters are, we neither 
are, nor ever shall be, a military people : and yet, 
in the train in which things are now put, unless 
we are, it were idiotism to hope for either freedom 
or independence. 

I remember well, in a conversation I once had 
with a , friend, now, most unjustly as well as un- 
wisely, driven from his friends and his home, on 
the subject of monarchies and republics, he ob- 
jected to the unavoidable slowness and dilatoriness 
of the executive power in the latter. Aiming to 
answer him in his own way, I replied that, if 
popular councils were slow, they yet were sure, 
and that /;/ the 7miltihide of counsellors there is 
safety. His answer was prophetical. If ever (he 
said) we of these countries should rashly put these 
things to the proof, it would be found, that, how- 
ever true this adage might be in the cabinet, it 
was not so in the field. Convinced, by melan- 
choly experience, that this is the case, and that, 
without some different system, we shall but expose 
ourselves to contempt and ruin, I resolve this 
evening honestly and openly to say so to the 
Congress.* I will go farther, and add, that if they 

•" An army formed of good officers moves like clockwork ; but there is no 
situation upon earth less enviable, nor more distressing, than that person's 
who is at the head of troops which are regardless of order and discipline, 
and who are unprovided with almost every necessary. In a word, the difl&- 
culties, which have forever surrounded me since I have been in the service, 
and kept my mind constantly upon the stretch, the wounds, which my 
feelings as an officer have received by a thousand things, which have hap- 

' cannot, 



89 

cannot, in fact, as well as in appearance, trust me 
with the uncontrolled command of their army, I 
will no longer be their puppet. Why should I ; — 
it being now morally certain that by going on as 

pened contrary to my expectation and wishes ; the eflfect of my own con- 
duct, and present appearance of things, so little pleasing to myself as to 
render it a matter of no surprise to me if I should stand capitally censured 
by Congress ; added to a consciousness of my inability to govern an army 
composed of such discordant parts, and under such a variety of intricate 
and perplexing circumstances ;— induces not only a belief but a thorough 
conviction in my mind, that it will be impossible, unless there is a thorough 
change in our military system, for me to conduct matters in such a manner 
as to give satisfaction to the public, which is all the recompense I aim at, 
or ever wished for." IVashinston to the President of Congress, 24 Septem- 
ber, 1776. 

" The amazement which you seem to be in at the unaccountable measures 
which have been adopted by [Congress] would be a good deal increased if I 
had time to unfold the whole system of their management since this time 
twelve months. I do not know how to account for the unfortunate steps 
which have been taken but from that fatal idea of conciliation which pre- 
vailed so long— fatal, I call it, because from my soul I wish it may not prove 
so, though my fears lead me to think there is too much danger of it. This 
time last year I pointed out the evil consequences of short enlistments, the 
expenses of militia, and the little dependence that was to be placed in them. 
I assured [Congress] that the longer they delayed raising a standing army, 
the more difficult and chargeable would they find it to get one, and that, at 
the same time that the militia would answer no valuable purpose, the 
frequent calling them in would be attended with an expense, that they 
could have no conception of Whether, as I have said before, the unfortu- 
nate hope of reconciliation was the cause, or the fear of a standing army 
prevailed, I will not undertake to say ; but the policy was to engage men 
for twelve months only. The consequence of which, you have had great 
bodies of militia in pay that never were in camp ; you have had immense 
quantities of provi.sions drawn by men that never rendered you one hour's 
service (at least usefully), and this is the most profuse and wasteful way. 
Your stores have been expended, and every kind of military [discipline?] 
destroyed by them ; your numbers fluctuating, uncertain, and forever far 
short of report— at no one time, I believe, equal to twenty thousaud men fit 
for duty. At present our number fit for duty (by this day's report) amount 
to 14.759. besides 3,427 on command, and the enemy within stone's throw 01 
us. It is true a body of militia are again ordered out, but they come with- 
out any conveniences and .soon return. I discharged a regiment the other 

we 



90 

we have hitherto done, I can neither bring honor 
nor profit to them ; and yet am sure to lose all the 
little of either which I either have, or might have, 
possessed. * 

day that had in it fourteen rank and file fit for duty only, and several that 
had less than fifty. In short, such is my situation that if I were to wish the 
bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should put him in 
my stead with my feelings ; and yet I do not know what plan of conduct to 
pursue. I see the impossibility of serving with reputation, or doing any 
essential service to the cau.se by continuing in command, and yet I am told 
that if I quit the command inevitable ruin will follow from the distraction 
that will ensue. In confidence I tell you that I never was in such an un- 
happy, divided state since I was born. To lose all comfort and happiness 
on the one hand, whilst I am fully persuaded that under such a system of 
management as has been adopted, I cannot have the least chance for repu- 
tation, nor those allowances made which the nature of the case requires; 
and to be told, on the other, that if I leave the service all will be lost, is at 
the same time that I am bereft of every peaceful moment, distressing to a 
degree. But I will be done with the subject, with the precaution to you 
that it is not a fit one to be publicly known or discussed. If I fail, it may 
not be amiss that these circumstances be known, and declaration made in 
credit to the justice of my character. And if the men will stand by me 
(which by the by I despair of), I am resolved not to be forced from this 
ground while I have life ; and a few days will determine the point, if the 
enemy should not change their plan of operations ; for they certainly will 
not — I am sure they ought not — to waste the sea.sou that is now fast advanc- 
ing, and must be precious to them. I thought to have given you a more ex- 
plicit account of my situation, expectation, and feelings, but I have not 
time. I am wearied to death all day with a variety of perplexing circum- 
stances — disturbed at the conduct of the militia, whose behaviour and want 
of discipline has done great injury to the other troops, who never had offi- 
cers, except in a few instances, worth the bread they eat. My time, in 
short, is so much engrossed that I have not leisure for corresponding, unless 
It is on mere matters of public business." Washington to Lund IVashington, 
30 September, 1776. 

* " I am not fond of stretching my powers, and if the Congress will say, 
' Thus far and no farther you shall go,' I will promise not to offend whilst 
I continue in their service." IVashitigton to Joseph Reed, 3 March, 1776. 
Washington was named dictator in December, 1776. 

Washington's policy about this time was outlined in a letter to the 
President of Congress, dated September 8th, 1776: — 

" Before the landing of the enemy in Long Island, the point of attack 

I want 



91 



I want words to express to you what I have felt, 
and still do fell {sic) on this disappointment of all 
my hopes : T had allowed myself to build too much 
on my scheme; and I seem to be in the situation 



could not be known, nor any satisfactory judgment formed of their inten- 
tions. It might be on Long Island, on Bergen, or directly on the city. 
This made it necessary to be prepared for each, and has occasioned an ex- 
pense of labor, which now seems useless, and is regretted by those, who 
form a judgment from after-knowledge. But I trust, that men of discern- 
ment will think differently, and see that by such works and preparations 
we have not only delaj'ed the operations of the campaign, till it is too late 
to effect any capital incursion into the country, but have drawn the enemy'.s 
forces to one point, and obliged them to decline their plan, so as to enable 
us to form our defence on some certainty. 

" In deliberating on this great question, it was impossible to forget, that 
hi.story, our own experience, the advice of our ablest friends in Europe, the 
fears of the enemy, and even the declarations of Congress, demonstrate, 
that on our side the war fhould be defensive (it has ever been called a war 
of posts), that we should on all occasions avoid a general action, nor put 
anything to risk, unless compelled by a necessity into which we ought 
never to be drawn. 

" The arguments on which such a .system was founded were deemed un- 
answerable ; and experience has given her sanction. With these views, 
and being fully persuaded, that it would be presumption to draw out our 
young troops into open ground against their superiors both in number and 
discipline, I have never .spared the .spade and pickaxe. I confess I have 
not found that readiness to defend even strong posts at all hazards, which 
is necessary to derive the greatest benefits from them. The honor of mak- 
ing a brave defence does not seem to be a sufficient stimulus, when success 
is very doubtful, and the falling into the enemy's hands probable; but, I 
doubt not, this will be gradually attained. We are now in a strong post, 
but not an impregnable one, nay, acknowledged by every man of judg- 
ment to be untenable, unless the enemy will make the attack upon lines, 
when they can avoid it, and their movements indicate that they mean to 
do so. 

" To draw the whole army together in order to arrange the defence pro- 
portionate to the extent of lines and works, would leave the country open 
for an approach, and put the fate of this army and its stores on the hazard 
of making a successful defence in the city, or the issue of an engagement 
out of it. On the other hand, to abandon a city, which has been by some 
deemed defensible, and on whose works much labor has been bestowed, 

of 



92 

of one who should be allowed to rise, on purpose 
only to be thrown down. The enemy, in the 
midst of all our blusterings, must despise us ; and, 
did not shame or some better principle restrain 
them, I should be but little surprised to find Gen- 
eral Howe, even with his present little handful, 
attacking us, — yes, attacking us in our entrench- 
ments. What shall I do? to retreat is to entail on 
myself the curses of every public man in my 
country ; and to go on is certain ruin and disgrace. 
Were the world to know only my true history on 
this trying occasion, I persuade myself, all the 
candid and considerate in it would acquit me of 

has a tendency to dispirit the troops, and enfeeble our cause. It has also 
been considered as the key to the northern country. But as to that, I am 
fully of opinion, that by the establishing of strong posts at Mount "Wash- 
ington on the upper part of thia island, and on the Jersey side opposite to 
it, with the assistance of the obstructions already made, and which may be 
improved, in the water, that not only the navigation of Hudson's River, 
but an easier and better communication may be more efifectually secured 
between the northern and southern states. . . 

"I am sensible a retreating army is encircled with difBculties; that de- 
clining an engagement subjects a general to reproach; and that the com- 
mon cause may be affected by the discouragement it may throw over the 
minds of many. Nor am I insensible of the contrary effects, if a brilliant 
stroke could be made with any probability of success, especially after our 
loss upon Long Island. But, when the fate of America may be at stake on 
the issue, when the wisdom of cooler moments and experienced men have 
decided, that we should protract the war if possible, I cannot think it safe 
or wise to adopt a different system, when the season for action draws so 
near to a close. That the enemy mean to winter in New York, there can 
be no doubt; that, with such an armament, they can drive us out, is equally 
clear. The Congress having resolved, that it should not be destroyed, 
nothing seems to remain, but to determine the time of their taking pos- 
session. It is our interest and wish to prolong it as much as possible, pro- 
vided the delay does not affect our future measures." 

blame. 



93 

blame. But this the world can know only by my 
resolving to tell a tale which, considering the rank 
I now hold in it, must involve my country in such 
internal broils and quarrels, as must be fatal to the 
glorious cause in which we have embarked. And 
this, I trust, I shall have the virtue never to do, be 
my private wrongs and sufferings ever so great. 

I have finished my letter to the Congress, to 
whom I have, at length, spoken in a more per- 
emptory tone, than, I fancy, they have been used 
to. It was absolutely necessary ; and I should ill 
deserve their confidence if, through any mistaken 
complaisance or diffidence, I hesitated to point out 
to them the mischievous consequences of their in- 
terference. I have also insisted on precise instruc- 
tions in what manner I am to conduct myself 
towards the British commissioners, if perad venture, 
as is possible, their first overtures should be made 
through me. Their answer will have a great in- 
fluence on all my future measures ; as I shall then 
know, (and surely it is time I should) on what 
ground I stand.* The very decided and adventur- 

* Congress had been singularly remiss in this matter. Early in March 
rumors of the powers and objects of the commission of reconciliation given 
to Howe had reached the camp at Cambridge ( Washington to Reed, 7 March, 
i'n&), and on the 24th, Washington asked Congress for instructions on the 
reception of the Commissioners. " If they come to Boston, which probably 
will be the case if they come to America at all, I shall be under much em- 
barrassment respecting the manner of receiving them, and the mode of 
treatment that ought to be used. I therefore pray that Congress will give 
me directions, and point out the line of conduct to be pursued; whether 
they are to be considered as ambassadors, and to have a pass or permit for 

ous 



94 

oiis measure, which Congress itself has just taken, 
is big with the most important consequences, not 
only to the community at large, but to every man 
in it. The temper and judgment which they shall 
now manifest, on their first avowed assumption of 
the reins of government, will be indicative of what 
we may hereafter expect. Hoping for the best, 
I yet will watch them most carefully. 

repairing through the country to Philadelphia, or to any other place; or 
whether they are to be restrained in any and what manner. I shall anx- 
iously wait their orders, and whatever they are, comply with them liter- 
ally." 

This question ofTcrcd no little difficulty to Congress, constituted as it then 
was, and containing a number of active minds ready to seize upon an op- 
portunity of ending the contest by a reconciliation with the mother coun- 
try. It was not until May 6th that the following resohition was adopted: 
"■Resolved, That General Washiugtou be informed, that Congress suppose, 
if the Conimissioners are intended to be sent from Great Britain to treat for 
peace, that the usual practice in such cases will be observed, by making 
previous application for the necessary passports or safe conduct; and on 
such application being made, Congress will then direct the proper meas- 
ures for the reception of such Commissioners." This is a singular resolu- 
tion, for it provides for only one contingency, and that a somewhat remote 
one ; that is, if the Commissioners come to treat for peace, and should apply 
for passports. Suppose they did not come to treat for peace, or should not 
apply for passports ? Yet meagre as was the resolve, it was regarded as a 
triumph for the party in Congress who favored independence. " It will be 
observed," noted John Adams on this resolution, "how long this trifling 
business had been depending, but it cannot be known from the journal 
how much debate it had occasioned. It was one of those delusive contriv- 
ances by which the party in opposition to us endeavored, by lulling the 
people with idle hopes of reconciliation into security, to turn their heads 
and thoughts from independence. They endeavored to insert in the reso- 
lution ideas of reconciliation. We carried our point for inserting peace. 
They wanted powers to be given to the General to receive the Commis- 
sioners in ceremony; we ordered nothing to be done till we were solicited 
for passports. Upon the whole, we avoided the snare, and brought the 
controversy to a close with some dignity. lUit it will never be known how 
much labor it cost us to accomplish it." l^oiks, III, 43. 

The framing of the Declaration of Independence did more to check the 
efforts of the Commissioners than any other one circumstance. 

'Tis 



95 

'Tis all fearful expectation: every man I see 
seems to be employed in preparing himself for the 
momentous rencontre, which every man per- 
suades himself must shortly come on. There is 
an ostensible eagerness and impetuosity amongst 
us, I could willingly have excused : I should have 
been better pleased with that steady composure 
which distinguishes veterans. One thing is in our 
favour: the passions of our soldiery are seldom 
suffered to subside; being constantly agitated by 
some strange rumour or other. Happen what 
will, it can hardly be more extraordinary, than 
some one or other is perpetually presaging. And 
we have already performed such feats of valour, 
whilst we have no enemies to engage but such as 
our own imaginations manufacture for us, that I 
cannot but hope we shall do well, merely because 
no one seems to entertain a suspicion that we shall 
not, I can, as yet, give no guess, where or when 
they will approach us: I conclude, however, that 
they will hardly stir, till they are joined by all the 
men they expect. Desponding as I am, I wish 
they were arrived; and that, at this moment, they 
were in a condition to attack us: they may gain 
by procrastination, but we are sure to lose. * 

I wrote to Mrs. Washington lately, and shall 
again in a week or two, if I do not hear from her 

* It was not until August iSth that Washington could inform Congress 
that all the British force had arrived. 

ere 



96 

ere that in Philadelphia. It has surprised me, 
that after what I wrote, she should hesitate. I 
beg of you, if she be still fearful, to second my 
persuasions by every means in your power. Ex- 
posed as she must be to so many interviews with 
people in the army, all of whom are in the way of 
the small-pox, I have the most dreadful apprehen- 
sions on her account. I know not well how the 
notion came into my head, but it is certain, I 
have, for several days, persuaded myself that she 
is already inoculated; and that out of tenderness 
and delicacy, she forbears to inform me of it, till 
she can also inform me she is out of danger. * 

I note sundry particulars in your letter, to 
which I am not solicitous to give you answers.. 
Why, when you have so often asked me in vain, 
will you press me for Congress-secrets? Whatever 
your or my private sentiments or wishes may be, 
it is sufficient for us that we know the highest 
authority in our country has declared it free and 
independent. All that is left for us to do is, so far 
as we can, to support this declaration, without too 
curiously enquiring into either its wisdom or its 
justice. I firmly believe, that the advocates for 

* Washington had resorted to this deceit in 1770 when Jacky Custis went 
up to Baltimore to be inoculated. "I have withheld from her [Mrs. W.] 
the information you gave me in respect to his undertaking, and purpose, 
if possible, to keep her in total ignorance of his having been there, till I 
hear of his return, or perfect recovery." ll'^asltington to Dr. Boiicher, 20 
April, 1770. 

this 



97 

this measure, meant well; and I pay them but an 
ordinary compliment in thinking that they were 
fitter to determine on a point of this sort, than 
either you or I are. At any rate, the world must 
allow it to be a spirited measure; and all I have to 
wish for is, that we may support it with a suitable 
spirit. 

I am, my Dear Lund, 

Yours most affectionately, 
G. W. 



To MR. LUND WASHINGTON, &C. 

New York, July 15, 1776. 
Dear Lund, 

Last Friday, the British fleet was seen off Stateii- 
Islancl : they have since been employed, uninter- 
rupted by us, in debarking their men, stores, &c.* 
And as they must now, I should imagine, be 
pretty nearly as strong as they expect to be this 
campaign, no doubt we shall soon hear of their 
motions. I have reason to believe, their first essay 
will not be on this, but on Long-Island; where 
(injudiciously I think,) we also are, or soon shall 
be in force, t Yet, if we do but act our parts as 

*The first intimation that Washington received of the approach of the 
British fleet from Halifax was contained in a letter from Lieutenant Davison 
of the armed sloop Schuyler, that reached him on the 2Sth of June. For a 
day or two, three or four ships would drop in, and on the 29th, forty-five 
came in sight, confirming Davison's report, and before evening one hun- 
dred and ten had been counted. The story was that Howe had sailed from 
Halifax with 132 vessels, so nearly all the fleet arrived by the 31st. On the 
2nd of July, 50 of them came into the Bay and anchored on the Staten 
Island side; the landing was made on the 9th. The "last Friday" men- 
tioned in the letter, would have been the 12th. The last division of the 
fleet, bearing the Hessian auxiliaries, did not enter the harbor until the 12th 
of August. 

t''I had determined to disembark the army at Gravesend bay in Long 
Island, and with this intention the fleet moved up the bay on the ist. in- 
stant in the evening, in order to land the troops at the break of day next 
morning ; but being more particularly informed during the night of a 

( 98) become 



99 

become us, be the issue as it may, we shall at least 
give them no pleasing earnest of what they have 
to expect in the course of the war. But there is 
no relying on any plan that is to be executed by 
raw men. * 

You have heard much of the powers with which 
commissioners were to be invested, for the purpose 
of settling the dispute. Like most other things 
belonging to it, these too have made a much 
greater figure in talk, than thev do in fact. There 
are but two commissioners, the two Howes; and 
their powers are extremely vague and undefined.! 

strong post upon a ridge of craggy heights covered with woods that lay in 
the route the army must have taken, only two miles distant from the 
enemy's works, and seven from Gravesend ... I declined the under- 
taking." General Howe to Lord George Germaine, 7 July, 1776. 

* Many illustrative sentences could be selected from his letters on this 
point. I give only one selection, occurring in his letter of September 24th, 
1776, to the President of Congress : — 

" The jealousy of a standing army, and the evils to be apprehended from 
one, are remote, and, in my judgment, situated and ciicumstanced as we 
are, not at all to be dreaded ; but the consequence of wanting one, according 
to my ideas formed from the present view of things, is certain and inevi- 
table ruin. For, if I was called upon to declare upon oath, whether the 
militia have been most serviceable or hurtful upon the whole, I should sub- 
scribe to the latter. I do not mean by this, however, to arraign the conduct 
of Congress ; in so doing I should equally condemn my own measures, if I 
did not my judgment ; but experience, which is the best criterion to work 
by, so fully, clearly, and decisively reprobates the practice of trusting to 
militia, that no man, who regards order, regularity, and economy, or who 
has any regard for his own honor, character, or peace of mind, will risk 
them upon this issue." 

t " It is a great stake we are playing for, and sure we are of winning, if the 
cards are well managed. Inactivity in some, disaffection in others, and 
timidity in many, may hurt the cause. Nothing else can ; for unanimity 
will carry us through triumphantly, in spite of every exertion of Great 
Britain, if we are linked together in one indissoluble bond. This the 

It 



lOO 

It is a pity, methinks, that Congress had not had 
better information on this subject: if they had, it 
is to be presumed, they would not have precipi- 
tated the declaration for independency, so as to 
preclude all possibility of negotiation. I may ven- 
ture to whisper it in your ear, that this excepted, 
I firmly believe, that America might have carried 
every other point: and, certainly, there was a time, 
when this would have been deemed a conquest 
beyond the warmest wishes of the warmest Ameri- 
can. Whether in the present posture of affairs, it 
still be so, is another question: I can answer only 

leaders know, and they are practising every stratagem to divide us, and 
unite their own people. Upon this principle it is, that the restraining bill 
is passed, and commissioners are coming over. The device, to be sure, is 
shallow, the covering thin, but they will hold out to their own people, that 
the acts complained of are repealed, and commissioners sent to each 
colony to treat with us, and that we will attend to neither of them. This 
upon weak minds among us, will have its effect. They wish for reconcilia- 
tion : or, in other words, they wish for peace without attending to the con- 
ditions." H-'ashitigton to his brother, 31 March, 1776. 

"When the letter and declaration, from Lord Howe, to Mr. Franklin 
and the other late governors, come to be published, I should suppose the 
warmest advocates for dependence on the British crown must be silent, and 
be convinced beyond all possibility of doubt, that all that has been said 
about the Commissioners was illusory, and calculated expressly to deceive 
and put off their guard, not only the good people of our own country, but 
those of the English nation, that were averse to the proceedings of the 
King and ministry. Hence we see the cause why a specification of their 
powers was not given to the mayor and city of London, on their address, 
requesting it. That would have been dangerous, because it would then 
[have] been manifest, that the line of conduct they were to pursue would be 
totally variant from that they had industriously propagated, and amused 
the public with. The uniting the civil and military offices in the same per- 
sons, too, must be conclusive to every thinking one, that there is to be but 
little negotiation of the civil kind." Washington to the President of Con- 
gress, 22 July, 1776. 

for 



lOI 

for myself, that I wonld not even ask so much. — 
Different men will judge differently with respect to 
this conduct, on the part of Great Britain; I own 
I am bewildered and puzzled to account for it. 
After such an astonishing expense as they have 
been at, and with such fair prospects as they have 
before them of being soon in a capacity to pre- 
scribe their own terms, it certainly is extraordi- 
nary to find them condescending to be friends with 
us, on conditions as mortifying and degrading to 
them, as they are flattering to us. I can account 
for it but in one way; I really ascribe it to their 
magnanimity. It must be an unpleasing- contest 
to the nation: I say the nation; for, however expe- 
dient it may be for us to have it called a minis- 
terial war, no man who knows anything of the 
English government, can imagine, that the min- 
istry could have moved a step in it, if it had not 
been the sense of the nation. It must, too, be a 
most fruitless, and unprofitable war; since every 
advantage they can gain, must in fact be a loss, as 
being gained over themselves. No wonder, there- 
fore, they have been slow and backward to enter 
into it; no wonder they would be glad to be well 
rid of it, on almost any terms. I have ever been 
of this opinion, and it was this persuasion alone 
that reconciled me to the measure of taking up 
arms. I see, however, the world around me view- 
ing it in a different light: every concession that is 
8 made 



102 

made to us, they attribute to timidity ouly, aud 
despondeucy. I own appearances make for this 
conjecture; and, no doubt, Congress will give it its 
sanction. 

I have not adopted this opinion, that we might 
have peace with Great Britain on terms which 
would, once, have been thought most honourable, 
on slight grounds. Yesterday, a letter was brought 
to me, making overtures for a negotiation, from 
Lord Howe * — I had expected it ; and had my 
instructions. It was addressed as I had foreseen, 
to me in my private character only. On the 
ground of independency, if we chose to maintain 
it, this was not a mere matter of punctilio: it was 
the critical moment of trial, whether we would 
assert, or recede from our pretensions. Never did 
men sit in debate on a question of higher magni- 
tude : and, when they had once determined to 
declare their country free, I see not why they 
might not support this their declaration, by this 
as well as other means. A contrary conduct would 
certainly have indicated some want of firmness. 
Yet I confess to you, I felt awkward upon the 
occasion. The punctilio seemed, and it could not 

• " July 14th a flag of truce from the fleet appeared, on which Colouel 
Reed aud myself went dowu to meet it. About half way between Gov- 
ernor's and Staten Island, Lieutenant Brown of the Kaglc offered a letter 
from Lord Howe, directed to ' George Washington, Ksq.,' which on account 
of its direction we refused to receive, and parted with the usual compli- 
ments." Diary 0/ Samuel B. Webb, one of Washington's aids. 

but 



I03 

but seem, to be my own: and as such it looked, 
methought, as though I were proud of my titles. 
Put yourself in my place; and see me, longing as 
you know I do most earnestly for peace, yet turn- 
ing my back on a gentleman, whom I had reason 
to consider as the harbinger of it, only because he 
asked for Mr. and not. General Washington. How 
often it is my lot to find it my indispensible duty to 
act a part contrary to both my own sentiments and 
inclination. But, if I mistake not, it is in such 
instances only, that, properly speaking, we mani- 
fest our fortitude and magnanimity.* 



* " About three o'clock this afleruoon I was informed that a flag from Lord 
Howe was coming up, and waited with two of our whale-boats until direc- 
tions should be given. I immediately convened such of the general officers 
as were not upon other duty, who agreed in opinion, that I ought not to re- 
ceive any letter directed to me as a private gentleman ; but if otherwise, 
and the officer desired to come up to deliver the letter himself, as was 
suggested, he should come under a safe-conduct. Upon this, I directed 
Colonel Reed to go down and manage the affair under the above general 
instruction. On his return he informed me, after the common civilities, 
the officer acquainted him, that he had a letter from Lord Howe to Mr'. 
Washington, which he showed under a superscription, " To George IVash- 
inglon, Esq." Colonel Reed replied, there was no such person in the array, 
and that a letter intended for the General could not be received under such 
a direction. The officer expressed great concern, said it was a letter rather 
of a civil than military nature, that Lord Howe regretted he had not arrived 
sooner, that he (Lord Howe) had great powers. The anxiety to have the 
letter received was very evident, though the officer disclaimed all knowl- 
edge of its contents. However, Colonel Reed's instructions being positive, 
they parted. After they had got some distance, the officer with the flag 
again put about, and asked under what direction Mr. Washington chose to 
be addressed; to which Colonel Reed answered, his station was well known, 
and that certainly they could be at no loss how to direct to him. The offi- 
cer said they knew it, and lamented it ; and again repeated his wish, that 
the letter could be received. Colonel Reed told him a proper direction 
would obviate all difficulties, and that this was no new matter, the subject 

I shall 



T04 

I shall astonish yon, when I inform yon, that 
this first rebuff abated not the ardour of the noble 
commissioner. His deputy paid us a second visit, 
and vouchsafed to honour me with the appellation 
of General. What name will you give to this con- 
descension? I own it hurt me; and has well nigh 
led me into a train of thinking very different from 
all my former opinions. The gentleman, who 
brought the message, is a Colonel Patterson, Adju- 
tant-General, and a sensible well-informed man.* 
He requested to speak to me alone; and I was glad 



having been fully discussed iu the course of the last j'car, of which Lord 
Howe could not be ignorant ; upon which they parted. 

"I would not upon any occasion sacrifice essentials to punctilio; but in this 
instance, the opinion of others concurring with my own, I deemed it a duty 
to my country and my appointment, to insist upon that respect, which, in 
any other than a public view, I would willingly have waived. Nor do I 
doubt, but, from the supposed nature of the message, and the anxiety ex- 
pressed, they will either repeat their flag, or fall upon some mode to com- 
municate the import and consequence of it." Washington to the President 
of Congress, 14 July, 1776. 

On considering this subject, Congress passed the following resolution : — 
"That General Washington, in refusing to receive a letter said to be sent 
from Lord Howe, and addressed to ' George Washington, Esq.' acted with 
a dig-nity becoming his station ; and, therefore, this Congress do highly 
approve the same, and do direct, that no letter or message be received, on 
any occasion whatsoever, from the enemy, by the Commander-in-chief, or 
others, the commanders of the American army, but such as shall be 
directed to them iu the characters they respectively sustain." Journals of 
Congress, 17 July, 1776. 

* Here the writer's cleverness fails him. The second message from. Howe 
was sent on the 17th of July, and it was not until the igtli that a flag of 
truce came asking that the British "Adjutant General might be admitted 
to an interview with his Excellency General Washington," and permission 
being granted. Colonel Patterson came on the 20th — or four days after the 
above letter is supposed to have been written. 

he 



I05 

he did,* After the first salutations, he told me 
the purport of the letter which had been refused; 
and his errand how was to ask me to point out the 
most eligible means of opening a negociation, for 
the purpose of accommodating the unhappy dis- 
pute. I replied, that I knew but one Avay, and 
that was, by application to Congress, He said, 
the King's Commissioners would have no objec- 
tion to treating with the members who composed 
the Congress, provided only that that they came 
with legal authority from the regular legislatures 
of their respective countries. I answered, they, 
doubtless, would come with such authority; as 
indeed, they could come with no other. I evi- 
dently saw his drift in the exception, as he did 
mine: and so put a stop to all possibility of mis- 
take; he declared it impossible for his masters 
ever to acknowledge the Congress, as such, a legal 
and constitutional body of men, and as it seemed 
to be rather a punctilio of pride, than of any real 
importance, he hoped it might be waved. I stared: 
How, Sir, have you not already acknowledged the 
powers of Congress, by acknowledging the honour- 
able rank I hold, and which I hold from them, and 
them only? That said he, was the concession 
merely of politeness; and made for the purpose 

*Col. Reed and several of the general officers were present during the 
interview, which was held at Colonel Knox's quarters, where the General 
attended with his suite and life guards. Webb. 

only 



io6 

only of getting access to me: and lie was per- 
suaded, I was too sensible a man to lay any stress 
on so mere a trifle. I thanked him for his compli- 
ment, bnt assured him, that I meant to lay the 
most serious stress on it. If he really had that 
opinion of my understanding which he was pleased 
then to express, he must have supposed, that 
though a trifle in itself, it ceased to be so after I 
had made a point of it. Words could not have 
told him more strongly that our resolutions were 
to assert and maintain our independency. And if 
the Commissioners of the King of Great Britain 
found themselves either unable or unwilling to 
give up this, as a preliminary article, they, and he 
must pardon me for saying, that I could but think 
them very idly employed in soliciting an interview 
with me. On this, he prepared to take his leave; 
first adding, with a degree of sharpness and ani- 
mation, that I own affected me — Sir, said he, you 
are pleased to be cavalier with me: I consider you 
as a well-meaning — I wish I could say, well- 
informed man; yet, I am mistaken, if your head, 
as well as your heart, would not, at this moment, 
dictate a very different language. There may be 
heroism, for ought I know, in desperately resolv- 
ing to go all lengths with the men with whom you 
have connected yourself; but it is madness: and 
you may be thankful if posterity gives no worse 
name to a man who has no judgment of his own. 

Wrong, 



I07 

Wrong, Sir, your judgment no longer. We cer- 
tainly stooped as low as the proudest wrong-head 
among you could ask us: but, if you really think 
as you seem to affect to do, that we have made 
these overtures either from meanness, from a dis- 
trust of our cause, or our ability to make good our 
just claims, you are out in all your reckoning. 
Tliat the mean and narrow-minded leaders of your 
councils may disseminate such opinions, in your 
unhappy country, I can easily suppose; but remem- 
ber Sir, you, and your party, owe some account to 
the world; and when the world shall come to know 
your infatuated insolence in this instance before 
us, as know it they must, think how you will 
excuse yourselves? I replied with no less warmth, 
nor, I trust, dignity. I was, indeed, stung: for 
after once having owned me as a General, you 
must confess there was something singularly con- 
temptuous in presuming to school me. A few 
personal civilities put an end to the conference. 

I have transmitted a faithful account of it to 
Congress; but as I can hardly suppose, they will 
judge it expedient to make it public, I thought I 
owed to you, not wholly to disappoint your curi- 
osity. You will not, however, need me to caution 
you to be secret, as well on this as on other things, 
which I write to you.* 

♦Congress did print the report of the conversation, which was trans- 
mitted by Washington in his letter of the 22nd, and it was not until the 

One 



io8 

One thing more I must not omit to mention to 
yon. In my conference with Colonel Patterson, I 
thought I could discover that it was intended I 
should be impressed with a persuasion that the 

27th that it was made public. That the version in the spurious letter may 
be compared with that which received Washington's official endorsement, 
I print the latter in full. 

Philadelphia, July 27, 1776. 

The following is an exact state of what passed at the interview between 
his Excellency General Washington and Colonel Patterson, Adjutant 
General of the army under General Howe, July 20, 1776. 

After usual compliments, in which, as well as through the whole conver- 
sation. Colonel Patterson addressed General Washington by the title of 
Excellency, Col. Patterson entered upon the business by saying that Gen- 
eral Howe much regretted the difficulties which had arisen respecting the 
address of the letters to General Washington; that it was deemed consistent 
with propriety, and founded upon precedents of the like nature bj' Ambas- 
sadors and Plenipotentiaries where disputes or difficulties of rank had 
arisen; that General Washington might recollect he had, last summer, 
addressed a letter to General Howe, To the Hon. William Howe, Esq,; that 
Lord Howe and General Howe did not mean to derogate from the respec- 
tive rank of General Washington ; that they held his person and character 
in the highest esteem ; that the direction, with the addition of &c. &c. &c. 
implied everything that ought to follow. He then produced a letter which 
he did not directly offer to General Washington, but observed that it was 
the same letter which had been sent, and laid it on the table, with a super- 
scription to George Washington, &c. &c. &c. The General declined the 
letter, and said, that a letter directed to a person in a public character, 
should have some description or indication of it, otherwise it would appear 
a mere private letter ; that it was true the &c. &c. &c. implied everything, 
and they also implied anything ; that the letter to General Howe alluded 
to, was an answer to one received under a like address from him, which the 
officer on duty having taken, he did not think proper to return, but 
answered in the same mode of address ; that he should absolutely decline 
any letter directed to him as a private person, when it related to his public 
station. Colonel Patterson then said, that General Howe would not urge 
his delicacy further, and repeated his assertions, that no failure of respect 
was intended. He then said he would endeavor, as well as he could, to 
recollect General Howe's sentiments on the letter and resolves of Congress, 
sent him a few days before, respecting the treatment of our prisoners in 
Canada. "That the affairs of Canada were in another department, not 
subiect to the control of General Howe, but that he and Lord Howe utteily 

Commissioners 



log 

Commissioners thought not unfavourably of our 
pretensions, as urged in the beginning of the dis- 
pute. This is to be accounted for. They are 
Whigs; and, if I am rightly informed, the General 

disapproved of every infringement of the rights of humanity." Colonel 
Patterson then took a paper out of his pocket ; and, after looking it over, 
said he had expressed nearly the words. General Washington then said 
that he had also forwarded a copy of the resolves to General Burgoyne. 
To which Colonel Patterson replied he did not doubt a proper attention 
would be paid to them, and that he (General Washington) was sensible that 
cruelty was not the characteristic of the British nation. Colonel Patterson 
then proceeded to say that he had it in charge to mention the case of 
General Prescott, who, they were informed, was treated with such rigor, 
that, under his age and infirmities, fatal consequences might be appre- 
hended. 

General Washington replied that General Prescott's treatment had not 
fallen under his notice ; that all persons under his particular directions, he 
had treated with kindness, and made their situation as easy and comfort- 
able as possible ; that he did not know where General Prescott was, but be- 
lieved his treatment very different from their information. General Wash- 
ington then mentioned the case of Colonel Allen, and the officers who had 
been confined in Boston gaol. As to the first, Colonel Patterson answered 
that General Howe had no knowledge of it but by information from Gen- 
eral Washington, and that the Canada ;iepartment was not under his 
direction or control ; that as to the other prisoners at Boston, whenever the 
state of the army at Boston admitted it, they were treated with humanity 
and even iudulgence ; that he asserted this upon his honor, and should be 
happy in an opportunity to prove it. 

General Washington then observed, that the conduct of several of the 
officers would well have warranted a different treatment from what they 
had received ; some having refused to give any parole, and others having 
broke it when given, by escaping or endeavoring so to do. Colonel Patter- 
son answered, that as to the first, they misunderstood the matter very 
much, and seemed to have mistook the line of propriety exceedingly ; and 
as to the latter, General Howe utterly disapproved and condemned their 
conduct. 

That if a remonstrance was made, such violations of good faith would be 
severely punished ; but that he hoped General Washington was too just to 
draw public inferences from the misbehaviour of some private individuals ; 
that bad men were to be found in every class and society ; and that such 
behavior was considered as a dishonor to the British army. Col. Patterson 
then proceeded to say, that the goodness and benevolence of the King had 

owes 



no 

owes his seat in Parliament to the interest of the 
Dissenters.* But why approve of onr first preten- 
sions only? Surely if we were then right, we are 
not now wrong: I mean as to what we have a right 
to, by the principles of the constitution ; the ex- 
pediency of our measures is now out of question. 
I cannot dissociate the idea between our having a 
right of resistance in the case of taxation, and the 

induced him to appoint I,ord Howe and General Howe his commissioners, 
to accommodate this unhappy dispute, that they had great powers, and 
would derive the greatest pleasure from effecting an accommodation ; and 
that he (Colonel Patterson) wished to have this visit considered as making 
the first advances to this desirable object. General Washington replied, he 
was not vested with any powers on this subject by those from whom he 
derived his authority and power. But from what had appeared or trans- 
pired on this head. Lord Howe and General Howe were only to grant 
pardons ; that those who had committed no fault wanted no pardon, that 
we were only defending what we deemed our indisputable right Colonel 
Patterson said that would open a very wide field for argument. He then 
expressed his apprehensions that an adherence to forms was likely to 
obstruct business of the greatest moment and concern. 

He then observed that a proposal had been formerly made of exchangfing 
Governor Skene for Mr. I,ovell ; that he now had authority to accede to 
to that proposal. General Washington replied, that the proposition had 
been made by the direction of Congress, and having been then rejected, he 
could not now renew the business, or give any answer, till he had previously 
communicated it to them. 

Colonel Patterson behaved with the greatest attention and politeness 
during the whole business, expressed strong acknowledgements that the 
usual ceremony of blinding his eyes had been dispensed with. At the 
breaking up of the conference, General Washington strongly invited him to 
partake of a small collation provided for him, which he politely declined, 
alledging his late breakfast, and au impatience to return to General Howe, 
though he had not executed his commission so amply as he wished. Find- 
ing he did not propose staying, he was introduced to the general ofiicers, 
after which he took his leave, and was safely conducted to his own boat, 
which waited for him about four miles distant from the city. Made public 
by order of Congress. 

♦Howe was a member of the opposition. 

same 



HI 



same right in the case of legislating for us. You 
know I am no deep casuist in political speculations, 
but having happily been brought up in revolution 
principles, I thought I trod surely when I traced 
the footsteps of those venerable men. Wonderful ! 
These too are the principles of our opponents ; so 
that all our misfortune and fault is the having put 
in practice the very tenets which they profess to 
embrace. 

But, I shall exhaust your patience ; which I 
should not do, foreseeing as I do, that I shall, here- 
after, have occasion to put it to the trial. 
I am, with the truest regard, 

Dear Lund, Yours, &c, 

G. W. 



To IvUND WASHINGTON. 

New York, July 22, 1776. 
I wish I could say I thoroughly approved of all 
the new regulations in the new institution of gov- 
ernment in my native state. It could, however, 
hardly have been expected that a reformation so 
capital and comprehensive should be perfect at 
first; the wonder is, it is not still more exception- 
able. My heart glows with unusual warmth when 
I advert, as I often do, to that pure and disinter- 
ested ardor which must have animated the bulk of 
my countrymen throughout the whole of this con- 
troversy. There may be exceptions amongst us, 
and no doubt, there are; but it is not fair to infer 
this from cur uncommon impetuosity and violence. 
This one vv-ould wish restrained, but, by no means 
extirpated; for is it not the effect of a highly agi- 
tated spirit: the mere effervescence of good j)rinci- 
ples thrown into a state of strong fermentation? 
And surely, even precipitancy is preferable to the 
spirit-breaking cautions of chill despondency. Yet 
I am no advocate, in general, either for rash meas- 
ures, or rash men ; but at such a conjuncture as 
this, men had need to be stimulated by some more 

( ii2 ) active 



113 

active principle than cool and sober reason. They 
must be enthusiasts, or they will continue to be 
slaves. "■' 

I give this in answer to my friend Mr. Carter' sf 
objections to the first procedures of the new gov- 
ernment. No doubt, Henry is, in many respects, 
the un fittest man in the State for Governor of 
Virginia. I He has no property, no learning, but 
little good sense, and still less virtue or public 
spirit; but he is the idol of the people; and as it is 
by their means only that you can hope to effect 
the grand schemes which you have meditated, 

*The Virgfinia Convention met at Williamsburpr, May 6th, and remained 
in session until July 5th. Of what was done, Kdmund Randolph, a member, 
wrote: "Everything which had been done in the Convention of May was 
hailed as masterpieces of political wisdom, and acted upon with a cheerful- 
ness and submission which naturally i-esulted from the first demonstration 
of popular self-government. The young boasted that they were treading 
upon the republican ground of Greece and Rome, and contracted a sove- 
reign contempt for British institutions. With them to recede from those in- 
stitutions with abomination was the perfection of political philosophy. 
Not a murmur was heard against the competency of the Convention to 
frame the constitution according to its full extent. Nay, so captivating 
were its charms, that it was many years before some of its defects, even 
upon the theory of democracy itself, were allowed or detected." Quoted in 
Conway, Edmund Randolph, 32. 

tLandon Carter. 

t Henry was chosen governor by 60 votes; 45 were cast for Nelson, and i 
for Page. Henry had incurred the enmity of the "aristocratic " element in 
Virginia, men of wealth and landed estates, who controlled the leading 
offices in the State during colonial rule. " I think my countrj^men made a 
capital mistake when they took Henry out of the Senate to place him in 
the field; and pity it is, that he does not see this and remove every difficulty 
by a voluntary resignation." Washington lo Joseph Reed, 7 JIarch, 1776. 

"I congratulate you. Sir, most cordially, upon your appointment to the 
government. . . . Your correspondence will confer honor and satisfac- 
tion." IVasIdnglon lo Governor Henry, 5 October, 1776. 

you 



114 

you must honor them, and indulge them with 
their rattle. They will soon tire of him; and the 
opportunity must then be watched gently to lead 
them to a better choice; for they may be led, 
though they cannot be driven. And though it be 
alas ! but too true, that they often mistake their 
real interests; I am of opinion they never mistake 
them long. Sooner or later, they will judge and 
act from their settled feelings, and these I take 
it are generally founded in their settled interests. 
When great enterprises are to be performed, we 
may well dispense with some errors in judgment; 
when without that, we have, in its stead, that 
which perhaps we could not have with it ; I mean, 
that undisciplined ardor which is infinitely better 
adapted to our purposes. 

There cannot be a more striking instance that 
the judgment of the people may, in general, be 
safely trusted, in the long run, than is to be met 
with in Virginia. Very few countries have to 
boast ot more men of respectable understandings; 
I know of none that can produce a family, all of 
them distinguished as clever men, like our Lees.* 
They are all of them the very men one would wish 

* At this time two of the family— Richard Henry, and Francis Lightfoot— 
were members of the Continental Congress ; Arthur and WJliam were in 
Europe, soon to take a prominent part in diplomatic relations between the 
United States and France ; and Thomas Ludwell was a member of the Vir- 
ginia Convention from Stafford. In the list of members occur, also, the 
names Henry L,ee (of Prince William) and Richard L,ee (of Westmoreland). 

for 



115 

for to take the lead of a willing multitude; for they 
are certainly men of shining talents, and their 
talents are of that particular kind which usually 
render men popular. No men are more so, than 
the men in question once were. It is obvious, this 
is no longer the case; and the reason must be that 
they are no longer worthy of it. With all their 
cleverness they are selfish in the extreme. The 
people, at length, found this out; or, no doubt, 
R. H. Lee would have now been governor, the 
grand object of all his aims.* 

You would be mortified to hear the criticisms 
which are common here on Henry's inauguration 
speech, t It is, indeed, a poor and pitiful perform- 
ance; and yet I can believe that set off by his 
smooth and oily delivery, it would appear clever 
when he spoke it. Why did he not ask Mr. Page 
to prepare it for him? There is not a man in 
America more capable,! "The Counsellors of State 
are certainly irreproachable, and will do honor to 
those who appointed them.§ I am particularly 
pleased with the success of my honest brother-in- 



* The more probable cause of I,ee's not being better recognized is given 
by John Adams, IVorks, III, 31. 

t Printed in Force, American Archives, Fourth Series, VI, 1602. 

t Probably John Page, or his half brother, Mann Page. 

gThe Privy Council was to be composed of John Page, Dudley Digges, 
John Tayloe, John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, Bartholomew 
Dandridge, Thomas Nelson, and Charles Carter of Shirley. As Nelson 
could not serve, Benjamin Harrison of Brandon was chosen in his place. 

law 



ii6 

law Bat Dandridge:* and the pleasure is not les- 
sened, by the assurance he makes mc, that my 
letters were serviceable to him, there being but few- 
men whom I love more than I do him. As you 
are soon to go down the country, you will see him; 
and therefore spare me the trouble of writing par- 
ticularly to him. My friends must now be so in- 
dulgent to me, as to wave the matter of compliment: 
I think myself happy, whenever I can write, as I 
should on urgent business. You know how ticklish 
my situation is: little as one would tliink there is 
to be envied in it, I yet am envied. And though, 
in all good reason, their fears should take a direct 
contrary course, there are who are for ever suggest- 
ing suspicions and jealousies of the army and its 
commander. My own heart assures me I mean 
them no ill : however if I really have the influence 
and ascendency which they suppose, I will for tlieir 
sakes as well as my own, hereafter maintain it at 
some little cost. A thousand considerations deter- 
mine me to strain every nerve to prevent the army's 
being under any other control whilst I live. Let a 
persuasion of the necessity of this, if occasion should 
arise, be seasonably urged in my native state ; and 
in the mean while, let some more than ordinary 
pains be taken to make me popular. Their own 
honor and interest are both concerned in my being 

* Bavlholomcw Dandridge was brother of Mrs. Washington. 

SO. 



117 

so. Shew this to Mr. Dandridge; and as you both 
can enter into my meaning, even from the most 
distant hints, I can rest satisfied that you will do 
everything I wish you. 

We have lately had a general review; and I have 
much pleasure in informing you, that we made a 
better appearance, and went thorough our exercises 
more like soldiers than I had expected. The 
Southern states are rash and blamable in the judg- 
ment they generally form of their brethren of the 
four New England states; I do assure you, with all 
my partiality for my own countrymen, and preju- 
dices against them, I cannot but consider them as 
the flower of the American Army. They are a 
strong, vigorous, and hardy people, inured to 
labor and toil ; which our people seldom are. And 
though our hot and eager spirits may, perhaps, 
suit better in a sudden and desperate enterprise; 
yet in the way in which wars are now carried on, 
you must look for permanent advantages only 
from that patient and persevering temper, which 
is the result of a life of labor. The New England- 
ers are cool, considerate, and sensible; whilst we 
are all fire and fury: like their climate, they main- 
tain an equal temperature, whereas we cannot shine, 
but we burn. They have a uniformity and stabil- 
ity of character, to which the people of no other 
states have any pretension; hence they must and 
will always preserve their influence in this great 
9 Empire. 



ii8 

Empire.* Were it not for the drawbacks aud the 
disadvantages, which the influence of their popular 
opinions, on the subject of government, have over 
their army, they soon might, and probably would, 
give law to it. If General Putnam had the talents 
of Mr. S. Adams, or Mr. Adams had his, perhaps, 
even at this moment, this had not been matter of 
conjecture. But Putnam is a plain, blunt, unde- 
signing old fellow, whose views reach no further 
than the duties of his profession; he is, indeed, 
very ignorant, f yet I find him a useful officer; 
and chiefly because he neither plagues me nor 

♦ From the first there was this jealousy between the New England troops 
and those of the other colonies. The truth seems to have been that the 
ideas of equality that were prevalent among the former found little sym- 
pathy among the latter. Numerous quotations could be made to prove this ; 
but one is given, from a letter of Washington to Patrick Henry, 5 October, 
1776: " One circumstance, in this important business, ought to be cautious- 
ly guarded against, and that is, the soldiers and officers being too nearly on 
a level. Discipline and subordination add life and vigor to military move- 
ments. The person commanded yields but a reluctant obedience to those, 
who he conceives are undeservedly made his superiors. The degrees of 
rank are frequently transferred from civil life into the departments of the 
army. The true criterion to judge by, when past services do not enter 
into the competition, is, to consider whether the candidate for office has 
just pretension to the character of a gentleman, a proper sense of honor, 
and some reputation to lose. 

"Perhaps, Sir, you may be surprised at my pressing this advice so strongly 
as I have done in this letter; but I have felt the inconveniences resulting 
from a contrary principle in so sensible a manner, and this army has 
been so greatly enfeebled by a different line of conduct, that I hope you will 
readily excuse me." ' 

t That Putnam was a " very ignorant " man may be seen by an order is- 
sued by him when in command at Philadelphia in December 1776: "All 
ofisors aud solders boath Thoas that are Newly inlisted into the contenentol 
sarwis. Thos of the flieing camp the melishey and all the Inhabitence of 
this City are requested to parad to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock at the 

others. 



11:9 

others, with wrangling claims of privileges. I 
owe him too, no small acknowledgments, for the 
fairness of his accounts. I could open to you some 
strange scenes in this way. Some people seem to 
have gotten such a habit of cheating government, 
that, though sufficiently conscientious in other 
respects, they really are far less scrupulous in their 
manner of charging than, I think, becomes them. 
— But as I have often told you. General Mercer is 
the man, on whom these states must rest their 
hopes. The character that one of his countrymen 
gave to the Pretender, fits him exactly: "He is 
the most cautious man I ever saw, not to be a 
coward; and the bravest, not to be rash." In my 
judgment, he is not inferior to General Lee, in 
military knowledge ; and in almost everything 
else, he is, infinitely, his superior. Yet the over- 
bearing virtues of this last named gentleman are 
useful to us, especially at our setting out : we 
wanted not the sober and slow deductions of arg-u- 
ment and reason; and Lee, like the author of 
Common Sense, has talents perfectly formed to 
dazzle and confound. * 



Markit to go on fitig to fortify this city and so on Every morning til farther 
orders. 

ISRAEI/ PUTNAM." 
This order, quoted by Dawson, as written by Putnam, may, however, 
have been written by some adjutant whose spelling was somewhat eccen- 
tric. Washington did not hold Putnam's military merits in any high 
esteem. 

* General I,ee " is the first officer, in military knowledge and experience, 

I thank 



I20 

I thank you for your care in making the remit- 
tances you mention to Messrs. Carey & Co. * I 
sincerely wish they may arrive safe; as I certainly 
owe it to them to take every step in my power to 
make them easy. There is a pleasure in doing as 
one ought, in little as well as great affairs; but, in 
my present circumstances, I should often want 
this pleasure, were it not for your affectionate 
assiduity, and truly friendly attention. God bless 
you, my dear friend, for every instance of your 
care and concern for me. 

I am, &c — 

G. W. 

we have in the whole army. He is zealously attached to the cause, honest 
and well meaning, but rather fickle and violent, I fear, in his temper." 
Washington to his brother, 31 March, 1776. 

* Robert Cary and Company were Washington's factors in London. To 
them he sent the bulk of his tobacco shipments, and through them he 
obtained all the supplies that the plantation needed and which could not be 
made or purchased in America. 



APPENDIX. 



THE CAREY COLLECTION OF THE "OFFICIAL 
LETTERS." 



JOHN CAREY, LI,. D.* 

** Classical scliolar, brother of Mathew Carey, author 
of the ' Vindicise Hibemicse,' and of William Paulet 
Carey, was born in Ireland in 1756. At the age of 
twelve he was sent to finish his education in a French 
university. He spent some time in the United States 
about 1789, and afterwards passed many years in 
lyondon as a teacher of the classics, French, and short- 
hand. He died at Prospect Place, I^ambeth, 8 Dec, 
1826, from calculus, the last years of his life having 
been embittered by distressing complaints. 

' ' Carey was editor of the early numbers of the 
'School Magazine,' published by Phillips, and a fre- 
quent contributor to the ' Monthly' and ' Gentleman's' 
Magazines. In the former journal in 1803 he made a 
suggestion for enabling persons on shore to give assist- 
ance to distressed vessels by means of shooting a 
wooden ball from a mortar, an idea subsequently con- 
ceived and carried out independently by Captain G. M. 
Manby, for which invention Manby was rewarded by 

*From Leslie Stephen's Dictionary of National Biography. 

(123) government. 



124 

government. Carey brought out a new edition of 
Dryden's 'Virgil,' 1803, 3 vols., 8vo, and again in 
1819, two editions of Ainsworth's ' Latin Dictionary' 
in 4to, and five of the abridgment of the same; the 
' Gradus ad Parnassum ' in 1824; the Latin ' Common 
Prayer' in Bagster's polyglot edition; ' Ruperti com- 
mentarius in Livium,' and a revision of Schleusner's 
'New Testament Lexicon' (1826). He likewise 
edited more than fifty volumes of the ' Regent Latin 
Classics ' published by Baldwin. He was the compiler 
of the valuable ' General Index to the Monthly Review 
from 1790 to 1816' (2 vols., 1818), and translated 
Bitaube's 'Batavians,' Madame de Stael's 'Young Emi- 
grants,' Lehmen's 'Letters on Switzerland,' and others. 
In 1 8 10 he published a story for children called 'Learn- 
ing better than House and Land,' which went through 
several editions. His school-books were popular in 
their day and generally praised for accuracy and 
scholarly qualities. Among them are: i. Latin Pros- 
ody made easy,' 1800; new edition 1812. 2. 'Practi- 
cal English Prosody and Versification,' . 1809. 3. 
'Alphabetic Key to the Propria quae maribus,' 181 2. 
4. ' Introduction to English Composition and Elocu- 
tion,' 1817. 5. ' Clavis Metrico Virgiliana,' 1818. 
6. ' Eton Latin Prosody illustrated,' 1818. 7. 'Greek 
Terminations,' 1821. 8. 'Latin Terminations,' 1821. 
He published also a small volume of poems, with a 
portrait prefixed." — C. W.Sutton. 



125 



JEFFERSON TO CAREY. 

Th : Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Carey 
and will with pleasure give him access to any papers of 
his ofiice which no longer require secrecy. The diffi- 
culty will be how to separate these from those still 
requiring secrecy without giving Mr. Carey access to 
the whole, which Th : J. would not think himself free 
to do. Perhaps Mr. Carey can from the Journals of 
Congress, or other sources, designate the particular 
papers he would wish to publish. He shall be ready 
to confer with Mr. Carey on this subject when he 
pleases. 

Julys. ^792. 



CAREY TO JEFFERSON. 

Sir : I have the honor of presenting for your inspec- 
tion the remainder of what I have been able to copy of 
General Washington's correspondence. The whole of 
those 808 pages, and the best part of what has been 
copied by two of the gentlemen in your office, has been 
carefully compared with the original. One of the ori- 
ginal letters, of a particular nature, I take the liberty 
of enclosing. The index, that accompanies the papers, 
will shew where to find my copy, if you wish to cut it 
out : and if this be the case, I presume I will not do 
amiss in striking out every passage (for several occur in 
other letters) pointing out even the existence of such 
pieces. 

I 



126 

I am extremely sorry, that it is not in my power to 
complete the correspondence of the commander in chief, 
as I expect to embark on Sunda}^ next. However, if I 
might, without impropriety, request your interference, 
I am confident that a single word from you would con- 
siderably expedite the business, and induce the two 
gentlemen in your office to hasten the part they have 
in hands — which was undertaken on a presumption 
that I was to sail by the first of April, — is already paid 
for in advance — and not yet finished. Indeed the diffi- 
culties and delays that have been unnecessarilj'^ thrown 
in my way, since I first employed an exteini to assist 
me, and dropped hints that I might probably complete 
the work, — would render it necessary for me to request 
your interference in another manner, if I were to stay 
and continue it. But this being wholly out of my 
power, I think it needless to particularize them. 

Before I conclude, sir, I would beg leave to remind 
you of the utility of a certificate, under the seal of your 
office, purporting in general terms that I have, under 
the proper authority, had access to the original papers, 
have made oath (which I am ready to do) that I have 
diligently and carefully copied, have not willingly per- 
verted the text in any instance — and that my copies 
have been compared with and corrected by the ori- 
ginals. 

As to sealing up my papers, and directing them in 
the manner I had the honor of mentioning to you some 
time ago, you alone, sir, are a competent judge of the 
propriety of the measure. I shall therefore duly ob- 
serve (as perhaps this circumstance may make some 

difference) 



127 



difference) that the vessel, in which I sail, is to touch 
first at I^isbon, and thence, in 4 or 5 days, proceed to 
I^ublin. With sentiments &c. 

-r V ^. V JO^^ CAREY. 

Juesday, April 23, 1793. 



CAR:EY to WASHINGTON, 

Sir : By the Ship Factor, Captain Bowen, I have the 
honor of transmitting to Your Excellency two copies of 
your letters to Congress, written during the first four 
years of that memorable contest, which, under your 
auspices, so happily terminated in the establishment of 
American Independence. 

If, in any passage, I have mistaken your sense,— if, 
by any errors of the press, it is obscured,— permit me^ 
sir, to hope that such mistake* will be excused, when 
with great truth I declare, that I have used my best 
endeavors to guard against them, and intend to rectify 
in a second edition whatever I can discover to be 
wrong in the first. 

Respecting the plan of publication that I have 
adopted, which I fear Your Excellency will at first 
sight disapprove, and which is far from being satis- 
factory to myself,— I would beg leave to refer to one of 
the copies above mentioned,— the one in boards,— con- 
taining some manuscript remarks expressive of the 
motives that influenced me on the occasion,* 

* I was in hopes that this copy might be among the Washington books in 
the Boston Athenaaum ; but an inquiry addressed to Mr. Cutter, the 
courteous librarian, brought out the fact that it was not in that collection. 

With 



128 

With sincere and ardent wishes for Your Excel- 
lency's health, and that the indulgence of heaven may 
long preserve you a blessing to that happy Country 
which is so much indebted to you for the happiness it 
enjoys, — I have the honor to be 

Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, 

JOHN CAREY. 

London, March ^i, i795- 



CAREY TO JEFFERSON, 

Sir : I do myself the honor of transmitting you two 
volumes of those ofiicial documents, which, through 
your favor and indulgence, I was enabled to transcribe. 
I would have published two or three volumes more, 
had not a chasm in the General's correspondence, and 
the want of many of the enclosures, stopped my pro- 
gress. On this subject I take the liberty of writing to 
Mr, Madison, Mr, Page, and Mr, Beckley, hoping, by 
their interposition on the spot, to have the deficien- 
cies supplied. If successful, I shall immediately pro- 
ceed, and complete the work as soon as possible. 

Here I beg leave to observe, that, recollecting your 
caution respecting the premature publication of certain 
passages, I have endeavored to pursue the path you 
had marked out, and to keep clear of everything which 
might, at the present day, have an unpleasing tend- 
ency. Had I printed in Philadelphia, I should have 
been less scrupulous : there, any unlucky slips could 
have been attributed only , to inadvertence : whereas, 

now 



129 

now that I live under a government radically hostile to 
the Union, they might, by the American reader, be 
imputed to sinister motives on my part,— and possibly 
give rise to some invective against even you, sir, for 
having, though with the most laudable intentions, 
countenanced the publication. And, though perfectly 
convinced that such obloquy were incapable of disturb- 
ing a mind like yours, I was nevertheless unwilling 
that my conduct should furnish the theme ; and pre- 
ferred injuring the sale of the book by the omission oi 
many passages which would have been read with 
avidity on this side the Atlantic. 

, , JOHN CAREY. 

London, April'/, 1795- 



CARKY TO WASHINGTON. 

London, 8 September, 1796. 
Sir : When you consider the serious nature of the 
business on which I have the honor to address you, I 
trust your good sense will induce you to overlook and 
excuse any impropriety or indelicacy which there may 
be in my writing to you on the subject. A few days 
since I, for the first time, saw a book entitled "Epis- 
tles Domestic &c. from General Washington." As 
you also have probably seen it, I need not describe its 
contents. On reading it, I felt what every honest man 
must feel, indignation and contempt for the anonymous 
editor. 

Happening luckily to be acquainted with some of the 
gentlemen who write for the critical Review, I re- 
quested 



I30 

quested an indulgence which I scorned to ask last year 
when my own interests were concerned (j. e. on the pub- 
lication of the two volumes of your official Letters) — 
I requested and obtained permission to write a critique 
of the volume in question. I have the honor of inclos- 
ing it, for your own private inspectio7i only, until it 
appears in print — which will be on the first of October, 
with perhaps some alterations or amendments, if any 
occur in the interim between this first hasty expression 
of my thoughts, and my seeing the proof sheets. As 
soon as published I shall do myself the honor of trans- 
mitting a printed copy of the Review that contains it. 

I regret extremely that I cannot (without openly 
avowing myself the author), point out to the public 
the prodigious incorrectness of Mr. Duche's letter. 
Having compared it with a correct copy which I have 
taken from the files, I find no less than one hundred and 
forty deviations from the genuine text : — in which 
number I do not count orthography and punctuation. 

Permit me, Sir, to add that I am much at a loss to 
know whether I ought openly to take any notice of 
this affair in case I should publish a continuation of 
your " Official I^etters;" which I wish to do as soon as 
I can make it convenient. Perhaps some means may 
be found to guide m}^ feeble and fallible judgment. I 
wish to act for the best; and if. Sir, the uprightness of 
my intention will, I trust, excuse me. I take it for 
granted that Mr. Randolph has informed your Excel- 
lency of my intention respecting the whole letters and 
passages of letters which I have omitted in my former 
publication — which is (as I informed him in two letters 

written 



131 

written in November last) not to publish them during 
your Excellency's lifetime— nor even afterwards, if 
deemed unadvisable by persons on whose judgment 
and integrity I can rely. 

I shall shortly take the liberty of waiting on Mr. 
King, who may perhaps be able to furnish me with 
some useful advice— though I do not mean to inform 
him of my being the writer of the critique. * ^^ * 

JOHN CAREY. 

On the wrapper is written in Carey's MS : 
"This letter not having any relation to public 
affairs, and not being written to the President as Presi- 
dent of the U. S., but intended for General Washing- 
ton in his private capacity— is not to be opened by his 
secretary, or by any other person than himself. ' ' 

[enclosure.] 

When this volume before us first came to our hands, we took it up with 
avidity, expecting that it no doubt contained the promised continuation of, 
or the appendix to, the two interesting volumes of General Washington's 
genuine and authentic letters, of which we gave our readers an account last 
year. But we were soon undeceived by the following anonymous account 
of the manner in which these papers are said to have been obtained— 

[Here is inserted the preface to the spurious letters.] 
The recollection of the Shakesperian trunk being yet recent in our mind 
we smiled at the idea of the Mulatto's budget ; and not immediately advert- 
ing to the tendency of the concluding words of the above extract we ex- 
pected nothing worse than that the contents of Billy's portmanteau were 
merely the production of some sportive genius who chose to indulge his 
fancy in embellishing facts with the charms of characteristic and probable 
fiction, for the purpose of amusing his readers and benefitting himself, 
without injury to his neighbor. Under this idea we proceeded to the 
perusal of the volume with a resolution of deriving from it as much 
pleasure and entertainment as it is capable of affording. But we had not 
read many pages ere we found reasons to alter our opinions, and to suspect 
that the design of the anonymous fabricator was no very laudable one :-a 

suspicion 



132 

suspicion which was fully confirmed before we reached the end of the book, 
and in which we believe the majority of our readers will concur, when they 
have accompanied us in our examination of its contents. 

The volume consists of two parts — the letters said to have been found in 
the mulatto fellow's possession, and an appendix. The former fill sixty- 
two pages, and are seven in number, viz: one to Mrs. Washington, one to 
Mr. Custis, and five to Mr. Lund Washington — containing no details of the 
war, no development of the secret causes of events— but chiefly filled up 
with the doubts, anxieties, and vague apprehensions of the supposed writer, 
intermingled with some private matter of an uninteresting nature, but all 
together serving as a convenient vehicle for a few remarkable passages 
which we shall presently lay before our readers, as they are the marrow 
and quintessence of the whole — the rest being in fact " naught but leather 
and penuells." But it is necessary that we first take some notice of the ap- 
pendix, as it is there we can more certainly find a clue to unravel the 
anonymous editor's design. 

From page loo to 227, we are presented with various pieces respecting the 
treatment of the American prisoners — proposals for an exchange, letters 
from the British commanders urging General Washington to accede to the 
measure, proceedings of the commissioners met for that purpose, refusal of 
the British commissioner to consent to a partial exchange, viz: that of offi- 
cers only, with various other papers all tending to the same end, which is, 
to show that the Americans avoided an exchange, from motives of "cruel 
and unjustifiable policy;" and these are sufficiently explained by a short 
hint (page 150) at the different value of the British troops who were enlisted 
for life, and the American soldiers whose time of service was expired or ex- 
piring, and who would immediately on their release return to their fire- 
sides, instead of swelling the continental army, to oppose the accession of 
strength which their enemies had acquired by the exchange ; that the 
Congress was influenced by such considerations, is pretty certain ; and the 
consequences were grievously complained of at the time by the unfortunate 
sufferers and their friends, and are to this day remem.bered with indigna- 
tion. But General Washington ever reprobated such policy; and ac- 
cordingly we find him (in his Official Letters, vol ii, pp. 235 et seq.) com- 
bating it with all the glow of language and energy of argument which the 
honest indignation of a generous heart and tender sympathy for the suffer- 
ings of his gallant compatriots, could inspire. In the publication before us, 
however, the unwary reader is taught to impute the whole blame to him 
alone, since a resolution of Congress is produced (p, 104) seemingly giving 
him full power to treat for a general exchange. But in comparing the 
resolution with the printed Journals of Congress, we find that the anony- 
mous editor has falsified it, to answer his own purposes. And, lest we 
should attribute his faux-pas in this instance to a casual error of the press, 
the same falsification is again repeated in two other places (pp. no and 
J 15), where that part of the resolution is quoted. According to him. Con- 
gress 



133 

g^ess are made to say, that "if . . . all the officers of the enemy shall 
be exchanged, and a balance of prisoners remain in their hands then an 
equivalent .//..z.a/.. shall be settled;" whereas Congress themselves sav 
(journals Vol iv, p. 666) -a balance of officers" and an eqSe u of 
T t f: ^^^'"1 ^■" ^-^'^--Sefor such officers-i, being in fact thSr wish 
to redeem their officers only and to release as few privates of the I!n^ sh 
troops as possible: with which view, they effectually tied up theS^general s 
hands by the resolution in question, and put it out of his power to trea fL 
a general exchange. °^ 

ZlZ \T ''' '°/''' ^^ ""^^^ "^" proceedings of the American army in 
1783 to obtain a redress of grievances ;-viz, anonymous summons for a 
meeting of officers, address exciting the troops to revolt, genTaTorders on 
the occasion, for convening a meeting of officers "to hear the report of the 
inTso';"" ,''' T^ '° ^°"^^^^^^ ^^'^^"^ --^-°- address, proceed 

oTenrT '""''' ""'^'''^^' "^'^ ^^"^^^^^ Washington's address 
Lh ; ^^^^^^P^^«/^^-^°P^ed from the printed Journals of Congress 
(for It IS o be observed that the General gave that body early information 

sake or h ?n"""^' '"' ^^"'^^ '° "^^^ ^^"^ '^'-'y -*™duced for he 
sake of the following passage in the second anonymous address which 
seems to point him out as a favorer, at least, if not the prime instTgaS of 
. the mutiny, for purposes which must be obvious to every reader The 
words within crotchets, in this and the following extracts, are the True 
readings, winch we have copied from the Journals (Vol. ^iii, pp ' "' 
seq.), though some of the deviations from the text are of little moment 
except so far as they may enable us to form an opinion of the edTto's 
fidelity in other instances where we have not an opportunity of dete^ 

"The general order of yesterday, which the weak may mistake for disao 
probation, and the designing dare to represent as such, wears in my 
opinion, a very different complexion, and carries ^ith it a very daZrTl 

n fhTf t""'" ""f ;' " ""'-^ "^^"''^^ '^^'^^'^y^- Ti" now, the comm^nde 
m chief has regarded the steps you have taken for redress, with good 

Zt" H ."• ' " ''■^""' t°^^^"-^'-J -lence has authorized your meet 
ings and his private opuuorn [opnnon kas] sanctified your claim Had he 
disliked the object in view, would not the same sense of duty which Shade 
you from meeting on the third and sevenths? [on the third day oftheZ^tk 
kave forbidden you fro.n meeting on the seventh ..] Is not the sfme oS 
held up for your discussion? And has it not passed the seal of office and 
taken the solemnity of an order? This will give system to your pro;.eed 
mgs, and stability to your resolves. It will ripen speculatLn into fact 
and while it adds to the unanimity, it cannot lelen [Lnot Z. J L^ i 
the independence of your sentiments." p 239 P ^^loiy lessen \ 

In comparing the General's address to the assembled officers (p 2,1) with 
the authentic copy in the Journals (Vol. viii. p. 244), we noticed ./.^X" 
deviations from the genuine text; among which are the follow n<?.^Z 



10 



men 



134 

men see through difficulties [different optics] and are induced by the re- 
flecting faculties of the mind to use different means to obtain the same end" 
— "If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter 
■which m^y involve the consideration of mankind [involve the most serious and 
alarming' consequences that can iniiite the consideration of man}iind\ reason 
is of no use to us." The address . . . "is intended [calculated] to 
ixnpress the mind with an idea of premeditated injustice TO the sovereign 
power of the United States \IN the sovereign power of the U. S.~\" — The 
endeavors of Congress "to discover and establish funds have been un- 
wearied" Y' funds for this purpose," i. e. that of paj'ing and remunerating 
the troops.] "So far as may be done consistently with the great duty I 
owe my country, and those powers / AM bound to respect [WE ARE 
bound to respect], you may command my services to the utmost of [utmost 
extent] of my abilities." 

After these specimens of the editor's accuracy and of his good will to the 
illustrious character whose letters he pretends to publish, let me now re- 
turn to the letters themselves, and lay before our readers the passages 
above alluded to, — recollecting, meanwhile, the extreme caution of the 
supposed writer in packing up and securing his papers previous to the 
evacuation of N. York (as mentioned in his Official Letters, vol. i, p. 227), 
and the consequent improbability that such a man would leave behind him, 
in the possession of a sick mulatto slave, sitch letters as are here ascribed 
to him. 

[Here follow some extracts from the spurious letters.] 
We have here sufficient to render any yet surviving members of the first 
Congress, of those who voted the declaration of independence, and all the 
warm abettors of this measure, hostile to the supposed writer, and to excite 
a thousand injurious surmises in the bosoms of those who are dissatisfied 
with the late commercial treaty, and who accuse the President of having 
sacrificed the interests of, the United States to those of G. Britain. The 
motive attributed to him for taking the command of the army is well cal- 
culated to render the whole N. England States jealous of him, and inimical 
to his cause. The more effectually, however, to accomplish this latter 
object, we find him (p. 9) wishing to set fire to Boston, &c. — " Not without 
the loss of many men and much property," to cut off the British garrison — 
and only prevented by the selfish and interested considerations of the 
Mas.sachusetts Assembly, whom he is made to represent, a little further on, 
as disposed cheerfully to acquiesce in the burning of N. York, and the sac- 
rifice of the Southern regi:nents, without a dissentient voice. The following 
character which the General is made to draw of the influential familyof the 
I,ees — that of Mr. Henry, who was in fact, as here represented, the idol of 
Virginia — together with the remarks on the Virginia officers, are calculated 
to render the supposed writer unpopular even in his own state, and by 
natural sequence, in all the Southern States; Virginia having so decided a 

preponderance 



135 

preponderence in that quarter, that she may very justly be termed the 
arbitress of the South. 

We shall close our extracts with the following, which is the master stroke 
of the whole performance, and well adapted to excite in the reader's mind 
the idea of a Pisistratus, a Cassar, or a Cromwell, especially when he com- 
pares this with the extract already given from the anonymous address to 
the army, and with a passage in page 60, where the General is made to treat 
very lightly, and even to doubt the existence of a conspiracy against him, 
which, however, he represented to Congress at the time as very real and 
serious, and which appeared in the same light to a council of general 
officers, who, on a full investigation of the matter, condemned one of the 
conspirators to death, as we learn from his Official I^etters, vol. i, p. 174. 
" There are men who are forever suggesting .... everything I wish 
you." p. 51. 

We now take our leave of the volume, with the observation (which has, 
no doubt, been anticipated by our readers), that, as the anonymous person- 
age to whom the world is indebted for these letters, have, by his false quota- 
tions from the public journals of Congress, shewn how little dependence is 
to be placed on him, we hold ourselves fully justified in pronouncing the 
contents of the mulatto's budget to be in a very high degree apocrj'phal— 
that either the letters in question were never written by Genl. Washington, 
or, if he did write any such, they have been garbled, interpolated and falsi- 
fied by the editor, who felt himself secure from detection in this quarter; 
and as, in the falsification which we have proved against him, he aimed at 
blackmailing the character of General Washington, we may naturally con- 
clude that the same design pervades the whole of his performance— a per- 
formance which can, to no impartial considerate man, appear in any other 
light than that of an arrant forgery, trumped up for the purpose of render- 
ing the President of the U. S. unpopular, and thus, probably, either com- 
pelling him to resign his high office in disgust, or, at least, preventing his 
reappointment — in short, an electioneering manoeuvre altogether. 



CAREY TO WASHINGTON. 

Sir: I have the honor of transmitting to your Excel- 
lency a copy of the Critical Review, containing re- 
marks on a publication which bears your name, as 
mentioned in a letter of Sept. 9, which I took the 
liberty of addressing to Your Excellency, by the brig 
Diana, Potts. At the same time I beg leave to assure 

Your 



136 

Your Excellency, that, had I then known from what 
source the letters were derived, I should not have 
thought it worth while to trouble Your Excellency on 
the subject. To the politeness of the American Minis- 
ter, Mr. King, I am indebted for my knowledge of 
the origin of the fabrication, which of course rendered 
it necessary to make many alterations from the manu- 
script inclosed in the letter above mentioned. 

I conclude, Sir, by requesting that Your Excellency 
will indulgently Pardon my presumption in address- 
ing you at all on the occasion; and believe me to be 
&c. &c., 

Lo7tdon, Oct. I, lygd. JOHN CAREY. 

P. S. A report, circulated here, of your Excellency's 
declaimed intention to retire from Public life about this 
time, induced me to take the precaution observable in 
this as well as the former packet (of Sept. 9), lest a 
successor, or any one else, should think himself entitled 
to inspect the Contents, as being addressed to the 
"President of the United States." Another copy of 
Review, with a duplicate of these lines, is forwarded 
by the Fame, Harris, bound for New York. 



JEFFERSON TO CAREY. 

MoNTicELLO, 10 November,- '96. 

* * * With respect to the passages omitted in the 

official letters, I am totally uninformed of their nature; 

for tho' I received from Mr. Rice the copy you were so 

kind as to send me, and for which I return you my 

thanks, 



137 

thanks, yet, having gone over his letters in their MS. 
state, I have not read them as published, and indeed 
had I read them, it is not probable my memory would 
have enabled me to judge of the omissions. I am 
therefore prepared to give but one opinion, which is 
that the whole of the MSS. examined and passed by 
myself, and the doubtful passages referred to the 
President and passed by him, were proper for publi- 
cation. For tho' there were passages which might on 
publication create uneasiness in the minds of some, 
and were therefore referred by me to the President, 
yet I concurred fully in the opinion he pronounced, 
that as these things were true, they ought to be 
known. To render historj^ what it ought to be, the 
whole truth should be known. I am no friend to 
mystery and state secrets. They serve generally only 
to conceal the errors and rogueries of those who 
govern. I sincerely wish you may be able to prose- 
cute your plan of publishing all the oflBcial letters of 
our war which may contribute to its history. 

TH: JEFFERSON. 



HOW WASHINGTON BECAME COMMANDER- 
IN-CHIEF. 



\_From The Nation, June ij, i88g.'] 

Washington, June i, 1889. 

It is well to review occasionally our accepted histor- 
ical conceptions, gauging them by newly discovered 
material, and, in the clearness of vision that distance 
of time permits, altering the perspective, or distribu- 
tion of light and shade, as the confusion of contro- 
versy subsides. The recent celebration in New York 
proves that the popular enthusiasm for the national 
hero has by no means diminished, but rather in- 
creased, in the course of a century ; so that it is only 
just and proper to recur to the past and revise, where 
necessary, what have wrongly become popular ideas 
through carelessness, ignorance, or blind adoration. 
It is to the last that we are most indebted for our his- 
torical fallacies. 

Washington came to the Presidency the elect of the 
nation. The movement that led to his selection was 
spontaneous, unanimous, and heartfelt — such an un- 
questioned tribute as has rarely been paid to any man. 
Without him the Constitution would not have been 
accepted by the States, and it was with him in their 

( 138 ) thoughts 



139 

thoughts that the Convention created the office of 
President, and somewhat fearfully clothed it with 
great powers — for jealousy of power in any national 
or (to use the more common phrase of that day) fed- 
eral body or appointment was the bugbear of those 
who had been most actively engaged in the contest 
against royal prerogative, the cruel edicts of a corrupt 
Parliament, and the armies and machinations of a 
"wicked and abandoned" ministry. The fear and 
jealousy that were directed against Great Britain in 
1765-82, were turned against the Congress and the ad- 
vocates of a continental policy in 1783-88. It was the 
personality of Washington that contributed largely to 
bear down this jealousy ; and when he journeyed to 
New York to assume his high office, it may be truly 
said that throughout the land there was not heard a 
voice disapproving the choice. 

To read the generally accepted history of the Revo- 
lution, one would suppose that it was with a like una- 
nimity that Washington was appointed to the com- 
mand of the Continental army in 1775; that he then 
stepped into a position to which the universal suffrage 
of the colonies was calling him. Nothing could be 
further from the truth ; and to strip the incident of all 
the romantic features that hero-worship has thrown 
around it, it may be described, in the somewhat vulgar 
parlance of to-day, as the result of a "political deal" 
got up between Massachusetts and Virginia. The re- 
sult justified the wisdom of the choice, and led to 
much self-congratulation on the remarkable sagacious- 
ness of Congress and the really marvellous fitness of 

the 



140 

the man for the place — ideas handed down to us as re- 
markable instances of prescience on the part of the 
Congress. The fact was, and we may write it in all 
reverence, that Washington had not known military 
service since 1758 ; that he was better remembered for 
his defeat and surrender at Fort Necessity, for his per- 
tinacious and sometimes unreasonable claims for pre- 
cedence in command, and his obstinate pestering of 
General Forbes about the proper road to Fort Du- 
quesne, which led Forbes to really dislike him, than 
for his successful mission to the Ohio in 1753, and his 
courage and daring under Braddock. For nearly six- 
teen years he had been without a command, a planter 
of tobacco and raiser of wheat, a successful manager of 
a large estate, and an eager and active speculator in 
Western lands. 

This was not the stuff of which a military hero was 
made, and while in 1774 the formation of so-called in- 
dependent companies throughout Virginia in a measure 
renewed his military prestige, it was not as a soldier 
that he was thought of, even in his own colony. 
Jonathan Boucher, the Tory preacher and tutor of 
Jacky Custis, who knew Washington well, did not err 
far when he said that the ' ' most distinguished ' ' part 
of his (W's) character was that he was an "admirable 
farmer ; ' ' and no one was more surprised than he to 
see this man, who had always acquitted himself 
"decently, but never greatly," develop into a great 
leader of armies, and, later, of the people. Edmund 
Randolph wrote with much truth that, at the begin- 
ning of 1774, "some others were more prominent 

than 



141 

than Washington. It could not have been then truly 
foretold that the germs of solid worth which afterwards 
overspread our land with illustrious fruit, would ele- 
vate him very far above many of the friends of the 
Revolution." While constantly chosen one of the 
Burgesses from his county, a position that his large 
estates, serving as a "pocket borough," gave him, 
he never attained the honor and pre-eminence of being 
chosen to the Governor's council — a reward that 
marked the happy owner as a favored one and one 
of the "notables." He had a wide acquaintance in 
Maryland, Philadelphia, and New York, and his 
diaries show how high these acquaintances were in 
the social life of their respective colonies ; but his 
cold temperament forbade many intimate friends, and 
it is very doubtful if he could have been described by 
many of his acquaintances, or could have been recog- 
nized even by name outside of these circles. Had he 
nominated himself and "run" for an ofl&ce. his stand- 
ing would have been slight outside of his own county, 
and none at all outside of his colony. This is sad 
reading to the romancer on Washington but the facts 
bear out this statement of the case. 

The Continental Congress of 1774 was more useful 
in bringing together delegates from the different colo- 
nies, and allowing an interchange of views, than for 
its acts and paper remonstrances. The Bostonians 
were much pitied throughout the land as objects of 
ministerial cruelty, but this sympathy was rather for 
their present sufferings than for what were regarded as 
their rash and intemperate aims, interpreted then as a 

desire 



142 

desire to be independent not only of Great Britain, but 
of the other colonies too. Martyrdom was not con- 
sidered as a good ground for conferring leadership, 
and a little resentment was caused by the "inward 
vanity and self-conceit ' ' of the Bostonians, which led 
them to "assume big and haughty airs," and to " af- 
fect to dictate and take the lead in Continental meas- 
ures." Wait, wrote the mild General Gage to his 
master, and see these Bostonians pay the other colonies 
" the compliment of taking their advice." His words 
were true. In the Congress of 1775, by their explana- 
tions and personal intercourse with the other delegates, 
the Massachusetts men were able to remove in a 
measure their reputation for rashness, and came to be 
"universally applauded as cool and judicious." 

Among the Southern members thus influenced was 
Washington. His letters to Bryan Fairfax prove that 
he heartily sympathized with the general cause of the 
colonies before he attended the Congress at Philadel- 
phia. While it was sitting, he saw somewhat of the 
Massachusetts delegates. On September 28 he re- 
cords in his diary having dined at Edward Shippen's, 
and spent the afternoon with the Boston gentlemen, 
and Adams notes that he spent that evening at home 
with Colonel Lee and Colonel Washington, "who 
came in to consult us." On October 7, the two sets of 
delegates again met at Thomas Smith's. The result 
of these meetings is reflected in a letter Washington 
wrote to one of his old military companions, then in 
Gage's army at Boston. Though you are led to be- 
lieve, he wrote in effect, that the Bostonians are rebel- 
lious 



143 

lious, setting up for independence, and what not, I 
know from their leaders that it is not their wish or 
interest to set up for independence; they are merely- 
desirous of preserving their rights. 

Before the second Congress assembled, the old 
jealousy was revived. Adams records how the Sons 
of L-iberty of Philadelphia met the Massachusetts del- 
egates on the road, and warned them to be moderate 
and "to recognize the lead of Virginia." The "fine 
fellows" from Virginia, who were "very high," and 
beside whom the Bostonians were "mere milk-sops," 
had evidently made an impression. Deane, who was 
not very apt to be easil}^ impressed, wrote that he had 
"never met, nor scarcely had an idea of meeting," 
with such men as the Southern provinces had sent to 
the Congress. In wealth and social position there 
could be no contrast, as the Southerners were the 
' ' capital men ' ' of the colonies, while, with few excep- 
tions, those from the East were men of ' ' desperate 
circumstances," risking nothing but their necks in the 
contest. It was to Virginia that the Presidenc)'- of the 
Congress was given in 1774 and 1775, and when Pey- 
ton Randolph left the body, it was on Hancock, the 
propertied man of the East, that the honor was be- 
stowed. The intimacy between the Adamses and 
Richard Henry Lee, radicals all, even for that day, in 
a measure accounts for this division of the honors, and 
appears to have been the controlling motive for this 
and subsequent political "deals." 

The Massachusetts delegates brought with them the 
idea of a continental effort, and as early as June 2 the 

Massachusetts 



144 

Massachusetts Congress hinted to the General Con- 
gress that as the army then collecting from different 
colonies was for the general defence of the rights of 
America, the regulation and control of it was a proper 
subject for continental action. On the next day Ar- 
temas Ward was ' ' from expediency ' ' appointed com- 
mander-in-chief by the Provincial Congress, but with- 
out any idea of forestalling any action that might be 
taken at Philadelphia. Learning of this appointment, 
the New York Congress thought proper to consider a 
a like appointment in that colony, as "the supposition 
that in case a continental army should be established, 
these oflQcers will be permitted to preserve their respec- 
tive ranks, appears to us highly probable." In Phila- 
delphia the notion of a continental army continually 
acquired force, until at length action was precipitated, 
and the step taken — a natural result from the course of 
events. The question of command now came up for 
decision. 

Early in May, James Warren had expressed the 
wish that Washington or I^ee were in command before 
Boston — a wish that had probably been inspired by 
the reports of Washington that the delegates had 
brought back from the Congress of 1774. Ward was 
too old to make an efficient commander, and the army 
too heterogeneous and independent to be easily kept in 
control. Gates and Lee had reputation for great mili- 
tary knowledge and experience, and Lee especially 
was much affected by the Eastern delegates. But 
they were both foreign-born, and both had served in 
the British establishment, and this was regarded as an 

objection 



145 

objection that overruled what military features were 
in their favor. Remembering, perhaps, the warning 
of the Sons of L,iberty, and a letter from Warren that 
may have reached him just before the nomination of 
Washington would remind him of it — "I should 
heartily rejoice to see this way the beloved Colonel 
Washington, and do not doubt the New England gen- 
erals would acquiesce in showing to our sister colony^ 
Virginia, the respect, etc." — Adams suggested Wash- 
ington, but opposition was made. Many of the dele- 
gates thought that as the army was nearly all from 
New England, had a general of its own, and appeared 
satisfied with him, Ward should receive the appoint- 
ment. Fear was expressed that the supersession of 
the New England generals would lead to discontents 
and break up the army, as the troops were represented 
as being bound to their own officers. Adams was 
positive in the matter, and so was Richard Henry Lee, 
connected by marriage with Washington ; but it re- 
required several days of effort to remove the opposi- 
tion, and when the nomination was at length formally 
proposed by Washington's friend, Thomas Johnson of 
Maryland, the choice was made "unanimously." As 
a compensation, and to equalize the terms of the 
"deal," the first and third major-generals were taken 
from the Eastern colonies — Ward and Putnam — and of 
the eight brigadier-generals, all but one were taken 
from New England. Respect, surely, had been shown 
to Virginia, but New England did not suffer her 
claims to be forgotten ; and between the two sections 
all the officers were divided. 

The 



146 

The statement of Bancroft that there was only one 
general officer "who drew to himself the trust and 
love of his country," is one of those afterthoughts 
which subsequent events seem to justify. While we 
find the suggestion of Washington both among the 
Southern and the Eastern delegates, there was no 
"general demand" for his election. Indeed, Adams 
very distinctly states that it was the idea of many "of 
the staunchest members ' ' of the Congress, and it was 
the yeast of the activity of a little junto in that body, 
the Adamses and L,ee being its representatives, that 
leavened the mass. I do not lay much stress on the 
incident referred to by John Adams, of Washington 
attending the sessions of Congress in military uniform, 
thus, as has been suggested, nominating himself for 
the place. In a few doggerel lines on the Congress of 
1774, Drowne says: 

"With manly gait, 
His faithful steel suspended by his side. 
Passed W'-sh-gt-u along, Virginia's hero." 

This may be poetic license, but it is quite as probably 
a statement of fact, Washington may have worn a 
sword, the House of Burgesses may have worn a uni- 
form when in session, and it may have been this that 
Adams had in mind. The incident is more curious 
than important. 

No one admitted more frankly the political nature of 
his election than Washington himself. "The partial- 
ity of Congress, joined to a political motive, really left 
me without a choice," he wrote to his brother, and he 

uses 



147 

uses nearly the same words in letters to Col. Bassett 
and the Virginia Military companies. To his wife he 
wrote as if he had expected the appointment, and 
could not decline it if it were made : 

"You might, and I suppose did perceive, from the tenor of 
my letters, that I was apprehensive I could not avoid this ap- 
pointment, as I did not pretend to intimate when I should 
return. This was the case. It was utterly out of my power to 
refuse this appointment, without exposing my character to 
such censures as would have reflected dishonor upon myself 
and given pain to my friends." 

Adams was naturally jubilant over the success of 
his policy. "This appointment will have a great 
effect in cementing and securing the union of these 
colonies." An anonymous writer from Philadelphia 
said that "Washington, a delegate from Virginia, is, 
at the particular request of the people of New Eng- 
land," appointed; but this is claiming too much, as 
the "people " were not so much as consulted, and it is 
doubtful if the people would have ratified the choice, 
had it been submitted to them. Gage, with a true in- 
sight in the matter, wrote to Dartmouth of ' ' much 
division in Congress, jealousy of the Eastern delegates, 
owing to which Washington was appointed to the 
chief command of the rebel army." The act was, in 
fact, due to the efforts of a few of the more far-sighted 
leaders of the Revolution, and was made successful by 
colonial pride and jealousy. 

WORTHINGTON C. FORD. 



PARTICULARS OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. 



Extract from a Letter in LloycVs Evening Post of August 
I J, \_177S'] signed an Old Soldier. 

Mr. George Washington was the second son of a 
planter in Virginia, whose situation and circumstances 
in life were such as might have ranked him with that 
respectable class of men called the yeomanry. His 
mother is still living, and so are three brothers and one 
sister, all married and decently settled in their native 
colony as planters. By the death of his elder brother 
Mr. I^awrence Washington, who was a captain in the 
American troops raised for the expedition against 
Carthagena, and afterwards incorporated with the reg- 
ulars, he succeeded to the paternal estate. A late 
celebrated patriot said in Parliament, that Mr. Wash- 
ington was an independent gentleman of 5000 1. per 
annum, clear estate. Many such things are said. It 
is not usual, however, in that country to estimate 
men's fortunes by their annual incomes; in fact, owing 
to many circumstances not necessary here to recite, 
it is hardly possible this should be done with any 
precision. His estate, even under his excellent man- 
agement, never was, one year with another, worth 

(148) 500 1. 



149 

5ool. per annum. There are an hundred men in Vir- 
ginia who have better estates than Mr. Washington; 
nay five hundred. At his first setting out in life, and 
before the death of his brother, he was surveyor of the 
county of Orange; an appointment attended with a 
good deal of duty, and but little profit. I should 
imagine it might then (for then it was almost a fron- 
tier country, and of course there was more surveying 
to do) bring him in three or four score pounds a year. 
Having been used to the woods, and being a youth of 
great sobriety, diligence, and fidelity, on the first en- 
croachments of the French previous to the last war, 
he was appointed, by the Assembly of Virginia, to go 
out to enquire into, and make a report of, the true 
state of the complaints. He published his Journal, 
which did credit to his character for care and industry.' 
His appointment soon after to the command of one of 
the Provincial regiments, and his very decent conduct 
in that campaign, are facts of sufiicient notoriety. One 
circumstance, perhaps not so generally known, may be 
mentioned. The very first engagement in which he 
was ever concerned, was against his own countrymen. 
He unexpectedly fell in, in the woods, with a party of 
the other Virginia regiment in the night, and fifty men 
were killed before the mistake was found out The 
blame was laid (and possibly with great justness) on 
the darkness of the night. It is remarkable, however, 
that the same misfortune befel him in his last action 
at Germantown ; the blame was then also laid on a 
darkness occasioned by a thick fog. 
Before the war was over Mr. Washington resigned, 
^ ^ urged 



I50 

urged thereto by his lady, a widow of Mr. Custis, 
whom he then married, and which certainly was au 
advantageous match. 

It is not to be denied, that he was not then much 
liked in the army ; but it is not less true that no very 
good reasons were ever given for his being disliked. I 
attributed it, (and I hope I may be allowed to have 
some pretensions to judge of it, having served with 
him in that campaign,) to his being a tolerably strict 
disciplinarian ; a system which ill suited with the im- 
patient spirits of his headstrong countrymen, who are 
but little used to restraint. Method and exactness are 
the fort of his character ; he gave a very strong proof 
of this in this very service. 

He is not a generous, but a just man ; and having, 
from some idea of propriety, made it a point neither to 
gain nor lose as an individual in the war, he kept to 
his purpose, and left the service without either owing 
a shilling, or being a shilling richer for it. 

After his resignation he lived entirely as a country 
gentleman, distinguished chiefly by his skill and in- 
dustry in improvements in agriculture. He was a 
member of the House of Burgesses ; respectable, but 
not shining. 

At the time of the stamp act, and during the com- 
mencement of the present troubles, he took such a 
part only as most of his compeers did ; save only that 
being more industrious, and probably ICvSS violent, 
than most of them, he carried the scheme of manufac- 
turing to a greater height than almost any other man. 

When it was determined by some restless men in the 

northern 



151 

northern colonies to raise an army, they soon foresaw 
that it would be impossible to eflfect this without the 
concurrence of their southern fellow-colonies ; they 
fixed their eyes, in particular, on Virginia, which 
having long been called her Majesty's ancient domin- 
ion, the people, naturally ostentatious, were proud to 
be considered as taking the lead. They were artfully 
indulged and humored in this pardonable instance of 
human vanity. Mr. Randolph, a Virginian, was 
made President of the Congress, and Mr. Washing- 
ton, commander in chief; both of them very honest 
and well-meaning men. Their honesty betrayed 
them ; for it is an undoubted fact, that they would 
never have accepted of those posts, if they had not en- 
tertained the first and strongest suspicions of their un- 
warrantable views of their northern brethren. Alas ! 
they considered not how difficult, and even impos- 
sible it would be for them, after having once passed 
the strait line of rectitude, to stop short of the utmost 
wrong. Their seducers were systematic ; and having 
now prevailed on them, in one great instance, to fly in 
the face of government, they knew their game too 
well not to manage so as to cut off all hopes of a re- 
treat. Things were pushed to so desperate an ex- 
tremity, that safety was now to be found only in going 
on; the relinquishment of independency, circum- 
stanced as affairs then were, and were contrived to 
be, would certainly have been to have relinquished 
also the first ground of the quarrel, the right of tax- 
ation. 

All this may appear paradoxical, but it is neverthe- 

le.ss 



152 

less perfectly consistent with the genuine workings of 
human nature, and these Americans are not singular 
in having acted the part I am describing. It is an un- 
doubted fact, that Washington and Randolph (who 
then acted in concert, and who then also greatly in- 
fluenced the Colony of Virginia, and, of course, the 
whole Continent) were, at the time I am speaking of, 
as adverse to independence, as (for I would express 
myself strongly) the heads of the northern faction were 
bent upon it. 

But is not his judgment thereby called in question? 
If independence be now just and advantageous to his 
country, it must always have been so, and, of course, 
always his duty to have promoted it. 

Placed at the head of an army and country, which, 
at least, were great and glorious in the American 
accounts of them, it is not to be wondered at that Mr. 
Washington soon began to feel his consequence. His 
ruling passion is military form. Nature has certainly 
iven him some military talents, yet it is more than 
probable he never will be a great soldier. There are 
insuperable impediments in his way. He is but of 
slow parts, and these are totally unassisted by any 
kind of education. Now, though such a character 
may acquit itself with some sort of eclat in the poor, 
pitiful, unsoldier-like war in which he has hitherto 
been employed, it is romantic to suppose he must not 
fail, if ever it should be his lot to be opposed by real 
military skill. He never saw any actual service but 
the unfortunate action of Braddock. He never read a 
book in the art of war of higher value than Bland's 

exercises ; 



153 

exercises ; and it has already been noted that he is by 
no means of bright or shining parts. If, then, military 
knowledge be unlike all other ; or, if it be not totally 
useless as to all the purposes of actual war, it is im- 
possible that Mr. Washington should be a great 
soldier. In fact, by the mere dint and braverj^ of our 
army alone, he has been beaten whenever he has en- 
gaged ; and that this is left to befal him again, is a 
problem which, I believe, most military men are 
utterly at a loss to solve. 

It should not be denied, however, that, all things 
considered, he really has performed wonders. That 
he is alive to command an army, or that an army is 
left him to command, might be sufl5cient to ensure 
him the reputation of a great General, if the British 
Generals any longer were what British Generals used 
to be. In short, I am of the opinion of the Marquis 
de la Fayette, that any other General in the world 
than General Howe, would have beaten General 
Washington; and any other General in the world 
than General Washington, would have beaten General 
Howe. I am, &c., 
AN OI,D SOI^DIER.* 

* From the Gentleman's Magazine, 1778, 368. 



CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON. 



BY THE REVEREND BENNET ALLEN. 
\_From the {London) Morning Post, Tuesday, June i, /779-] 
Is a native of Virginia : his first employment was as 
clerk in I^ord Fairfax's land-office, who afterwards 
made him a land-surveyor, in which capacity he took 
up most of the best vacant land in the northern neck 
of Virginia for himself and his brother. By these and 
other means he possessed himself of a considerable 
landed property, and became of consequence enough 
to obtain a command of the Provincial forces in the 
last war ; at the beginning of which he was defeated at 
a place known by the name of the lyittle Meadow. 
He was likewise in Braddock's defeat, and is said to 
have been useful in bringing off the remains of that 
corps. This was all the military experience he had an 
opportunity of gaining. His abilities are of that medi- 
ocrity which creates no jealousy; his natural temper 
makes him reserved, his want of education renders 
him diffident, and to these negative qualities he seems 
to have been as much indebted for his appointment 
and the continuance of his command, as to political 
motives. The New England delegates concurred in 
making him the offer of the chief command, to secure 

(154) the 



155 

the fidelity of Virginia, and the southern provinces ; 
and he pretended that political reasons induced him to 
accept of it, to preserve a balance of power against the 
northern provinces. He is ambitious, with the fairest 
professions of moderation, and avaritious under the 
most specious appearance of disinterestedness — par- 
ticularly eager in engrossing large tracts of land, 
though he has no family, but by a widow lady of for- 
tune he married, who bore children by a former hus- 
band. He had not perhaps less than two hundred 
thousand acres surveyed for him on the Ohio, first 
purchasing officers' rights for a trifle, and then pro- 
curing an order of the council of Virginia to extend 
the proclamation of 1763 to the Provincials employed 
in the last war.* It has been a matter of surprize, 

* The following extract of a letter from Colonel George Washington to his 
agent, dated December 27, 1773, will explain a transaction but little knowji in 
England : 

" / have just obtained an order of council to grant lands under the King's 
proclamation of October, 1763, to the officers and soldiers, by which a lieu- 
tenant is entitled to 2000 acres, but that the Governor would not grant his 
warrants of survey to any that did not personally apply for them. Numbers, 
however, are obtaining these warrants, and locating them with the surveyors 
of Augusta, Botetourt, and Fincastle, by whom and their deputies, all these 
surveys are to be made. 

" Till I see your brother I am at a loss to locate my oivn lands under the 
proclamation of 1763, and am sensible that every day's delay may prove hurtful, 
as I suppose every officer and soldier within the three provinces, either is or will 
be upon the move to locate their lands, by which means all the valuable spots 
will be engrossed. 

G. IV." 

"P. S. No land 7vill be granted to ariy but officers and soldiers." 

It is evident IVashington egregiously outwitted the Governor of Virginia ; 
his request was singularly modest, to include the Provincial officers and soldiers 
in the grant, for tvhom the King's proclamation could not design those lands, 
for this obvious reason, that the object of the war was anszvered by securing 
them in possession of their oivji lands — and to exclude the British officers and 

that 



156 

that he could so long have made head against the 
king's forces ; but the circumstances of the country all 
favor the want of skill in the General, and of disci- 
pline in the troops. 

soldiers, for whose reward they were assigued, and to whose distressed families 
they might hereafter have proved a seasonable refuge, by insisting upon their 
personal application in Virginia. Many friends of government likewise on 
the spot were excluded by the grants being only made to the military— and the 
possession of those lands, as it will afford a safe asylum to the American 
leaders, if unsuccessful, so it will enlarge their territory to a boundless extent, 
if they establish indepe?tdency. 



THE AURORA'S FAREWELL TO WASHINGTON. 



This virulence of party feeling may be illustrated by 
the article printed in the Aurora of March 6, 1797 — 
the very day on which Jefferson was sworn in as Vice 
President and on which the retiring President was 
feted : 

FROM A CORRESPONDENT. 

" lyord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," was the pious 
ejaculation of a man who beheld a flood of happiness 
rushing in upon mankind. If ever there was a time 
that would license the reiteration of the exclamation, 
that time is now arrived ; for the man who is the 
source of all the misfortunes of our country, is this 
da);- reduced to a level with his fellow citizens, and is 
no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon 
the United States. If ever there was a period for re- 
joicing, this is the moment — every heart, in unison 
with the freedom and happiness of the people, ought 
to beat high with exultation that the name of Wash- 
ington from this day ceases to give a currency to 
political iniquity, and to legalize corruption. A new 
aera is now opening upon us, an aera which promises 

( 157 ) much 



158 

much to the people ; for public measures must now 
stand upon their own merits, and nefarious projects 
can no longer be supported b)^ a name. When a re- 
trospect is taken of the Washingtonian administra- 
tion for eight years, it is a subject of the greatest 
astonishment, that a single individual should have 
cankered the principles of republicanism in an enlight- 
ened people, just emerged from the gulph of despot- 
ism, and should have carried his designs against the 
public liberty so far, as to have put in jeopardy its 
very existence. Such however are the facts, and with 
these staring us in the face, this day ought to be a 
Jubilee in the United States.* 
March 4.. 

* This article may with little doubt be attributed to Bache. 

In The Nation of 28 November, 1889, I wrote of the newspaper attacks on 
Washington in 1796-97: "The press teemed with attacks upon hiin and his 
policy, so bitterly personal in tone and vituperative in language as to ex- 
cite indignation when read at this late day. None, however, wielded such 
a bitter pen as a little clique of 'French Democrats' in Philadelphia. Duane, 
an Irish-American, and Bache, a connection of Benjamin Franklin, formed 
a partnership, and their paper, \.\i^ Aurora, has never been' surpassed, if 
equalled, in its libellous spirit and neglect of all proprieties. Mr. Henry 
Adams, in his admirable history, asserts that this paper ' was the nearest 
approach to a modern newspaper to be found in the country,' and sets him 
down as a ' scurrilous libeller.' . . . Not content with his [Washington's] 
retirement, they [the libellers] pursued him into private life, and the fare- 
well to Washington on his leaving the Presidency, penned by Duane, has 
become a classic of unseemly libel." 

In attributing this farewell to the pen of Duane. I followed what had be- 
come almost an accepted fact, as the charge had been made again and 
again in federalist prints during Duane's life, and to my knowledge never 
denied. But I afterwards found a letter from Duane to the Rev. Mr. Bent- 
ley of Salem, Mass., in which he denied the authorship and gives a very in- 
teresting account of the cause of Bache's opposition to Washington. I 
quote the paragraphs pertinent to that matter: — 

" Allusion is made in a late Repertory to a publication in the Aurora of 6 



159 

March, 1797, relating to the resignation of Genl. "Washington. On the sub- 
ject of that article my opinion now is of no importance, but as the use of it 
shows that the cunning and falsehood of Dr. Park are alike adverse to the 
end which he proposes to obtain, I think it proper to inform you that I was 
not concerned with ihe Aurora at the time of that publication. Mr. Bache 
(Dr. Franklin's grandson) was then the editor of the Aurora, and I was at 
that time the editor of the paper now published by Bradford. Mr. Bache 
died of the yellow fever in September, 1798, and I became editor on the first 
of November following. So that Dr. Park has either wilfully passed the 
bounds of veracity or servilely adopted the imposture offence of his coadju- 
tor. I noticed this imposture before in a Connecticut paper, published by 
a clergyman who formerly edited the Balance. I forget his name, but he 
introduced a letter of Genl. Washington's to Mr. Humphreys, in which al- 
lusion is made to Bache's paper; yet this Mr.— aye Mr. Lampper has 
thought it fit to transfer all the acts of Mr. Bache upon Duane's head. 
By-the by, I have no objection to accepting all the censure that my prede- 
cessor was liable; but it is fit that it should not be done in this disingenuous 
way. 

" Let me have the merit of what I do; and when the question is put to me 
as to the acts of my predecessor, let me have the manly privilege of show- 
ing why and how I undertake to become responsible for them. 

" You may not, perhaps, know that the family of Dr. Franklin, and the 
Doctor himself during his latter years, had not been treated by Genl. Wash- 
ington as he and they appear to have merited. Indeed, after the Doctor's 
death his family was in a virtual state of proscription even in the midst of 
this city, and this state of things too palpably countenanced by the General 
himself; from what cause it maybe in vain to premise, but such was the 
unpleasant fact; and Mr. Bache, who was in a manner the favorite of Dr. 
Franklin, was one of those who felt proscription in his family, his industry, 
and his fortune. It was marked and pointed against him to a degree that 
you could not conceive without some intimacy with the affairs of the day, 
and on the spot. Mr. Bache, who next to idolized his grandfather, felt all 
the culpability that belongs to virtuous minds, and all the indignation of a 
generous spirit ; and he had a right to exult when Genl. Washington felt 
in his turn the ' slings and arrows of fortune.' He certainly did exult, and 
with good cause." 



INDEX 



Adams, John, 87, 94, 142, 146. 

Samuel, 118. 
Addison's Cato, 61 note. 
Alien, Bennet, 154. 
Alton, John, 8. 
American Museum, 13. 
Appointments in army, 77. 
Army, Continental, 48, 49, 144. 

jealousy of, 49, 116. 
character of, 55, 82, { 
Attack on British proposed, 85, 87. 
Aurora on Washington, 157. 

Bache, BenjaminHFranklin, 158 note. 

Bancroft, George, 146. 

Bassett, Burwell, 147. 

Bew, J., 5, 10. 

Bibliography, 38. 

Billy, 6, 8, 25, 26. 

Bishop, John, 8. 

Boston, proposed attack on, 51, 53 note. 

Boucher, Jonathan, 140. 

Braddock, 8, 61, 140. 

Breechy, 74 note. 

Bridgey, 74. 

Bunker's Hill, 83. 

Calvert, Benedict, 59, 67. 

(161) 



l62 

Carey, John, i6, 123. 

Mathew, 13. 
Carter, Landon, 15, 16 notey 112. 
Cato, Addison's, 61 note. 
Civil departments and army, 50. 
Colonies, wants of, 48. 
Commissioners, English, 75, 93, 99, 105. 
Congress, answers and instructions, 83, 87. 

dictates to Washington, 53, note. 

interference, 93. 

secrets, 96. 
Constitution of Virginia, 112. 
Continental Congress, first, 141. 
Convention, Virginia, 113. 
Conway, Moncure D., 34, 45. 

Thomas, 16, note. 
Councillors of Virginia, 115. 
Critical Revietv on letters, 10. 
Custis, John Parke, 11, 59 note. 

children of, 70 note. 
Nellie, 67, 70 note. 
Cutter, C. A., 127, note. 

Daily Advertiser on letters, 17, 20. 

Dandridge, Bat, 116. 

Deane, Silas, 143. 

Declaration of Independence, 81, 94 note^ 96, 100. 

Delancey, Brigadier General, 6. 

Drowne, 146. 

Duane, "William, 158 note. 

Duch6, Jacob, 13, 130. 

Dunmore, Lord, 71, 73 note. 

Du Simitiere, 32. 

Fairfax, Bryan, 142. 
"Federal Press," 21. 
Fireside generals, 84. 



1 63 

Fleet, British, 84, 94. 

Forbes, General, 140. 

Ford, Paul Leicester, 12 note. 

Fortifications, 80, 82. 

Fort Lee, 6, 7, 26. 

Fort Necessity, 140. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 158 note. 

Gage, General, 142, 147. 

Gates, General, 16 note, 144. 

Germaine, Lord George, 34. 

Gordon, William, 26. 

Great Britain, reconciliation with, 65, 75, lor. 

Hancock, John, 143. 
Henry, Patrick, 113, 115. 
Hickey plot, 74. 
Hildeburne, C. R., 10, 13. 
Howe, 69, 99, 102, 109. 
Humphreys, James, Jr., 12. 

Independency, 48, 65. 
Inoculation, 32, 71 note. 

Jay's treaty, 19. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 34, 35, 125. 

Joe, 74. 

Johnson, Thomas, 145. 

Laurens, John, 79. 
Lee, Charles, 119, 144. 

Mary, 8. 

Richard Henry, 11, 14, 15, 115 

William (Billy), 8. 
Lees of Virginia, 144. 
Lexington, 83. 
Letter of Howe refused, 102. 



164 

Letters, Spurious, editor's preface, 6. 

in loyalist papers, 11. 

notices of, 9, 10. 

objects, 5. 

reprint in 1795, 21. 

Rivington's edition, 12. 

Washington on, 11, 13, 15, 24, 26. 
Lynch, Thomas, 53 note. 

Manual exercise, 63. 

McFingal, 30. 

Mercer, Hugh, 86, 119. 

Mifflin, General, 16 note, 73. 

Ministry, designs against America, 47, 139. 

Monthly Review on letters, 9, 29. 

New England, 50, 117. 

New York, burning of, 54 note. 

Officer, character of an, 64. 
Official Letters of Washington, 16. 

Page, , 115. 

Paine, Thomas, 119. 

Parke, John, 13. 

Patterson. Col., 104, 106, 107. 

Pickering, Timothy, 26. 

Pigott forgeries, 36. 

Plot of Hickey, 74. 

Putnam, General Israel, 118, 145. 

Randolph, Edmund, 33, 140. 

John, 32, 73 note. 

Peyton, 143, 151. 
Reconciliation with Great Britain, 65, 75, loi. 
Republic, want of executive capacity, 88. 
Rivington, James, 11, 18, 24. 



1 65 

Robertson, James. 12. 
Rumors, 95. 

Situation of affairs unknown, 55. 56 note. 

Small-pox, see Inoculation. 

South and North, jealousies of, 117, 142. 

vStevens, Henry, 29. 

Success a soldier's merit, 61. 

Taxation of Colonies, 49, no. 

Tilghman, Tench, 32. 

Tories, persecution of, 66. 

Town and Country Magazine on letters, 10. 

Treaty, Jay, 19. 

Trumbull, John, 12, 30. 

Vardill, John, 30. 
Virginia convention, 113. 

council, 115. 

influence in first Congress, 143. 

new constitution, 112. 

officers troublesome, 78. 

politics, 35. 
Virtue, want of public, 48, 53, 56 note. 

Walker, Benjamin, 24. 
War aims only at peace, 75, 86. 
in theory. 63. 

not to be judged by an outsider, 57, 61. 
Ward, Artemas, 144, 145. 
Warren, James, 144. 
Washington, George, abuse of, 19. 

advises Custis, 59 

appointed to be disgraced, 49. 

as a general, 152. 

conduct towards Beuj. Franklin, 158 note, 

English sympathies, 20. 



1 66 

Washington, George, fears infamy, and disgrace, 46, 57, 80, 
feels a very coward, 46. 
influence of, 141. 
journal, 149. 
laud speculations, 155. 
love of country, 46. 
military experience, 140, 152. 
mistrustful, 49. 
mortifications, 87, 87 vote. 
on appointments, 77. 
independency, 65. 
letters, 11, 13, 15, 24, 26. 
name Rebel, 76. 
reconciliation, 65, 75, 100. 
the military art, 60. 
opinions on, 140, 148. 
policy of, 90 note. 
profits of, plantation, 148. 
proposes attack on enemy, 50, 85, 87. 
reasons for accepting commaud, 48, 138, 
146, 151. 
opposing British, 47, 142. 
refuses Howe's letter, 102. 
reprobates persecution of Tories, 66. 
resignation considered, 56. 
sends papers to Philadelphia, 9. 
sketches of his life, 148, 154. 
will, 8. 

writes to Congress, 93. 
Washington, Lawrence, 148. 
Lund, 45 note, 73. 
Martha, 69, 95. 

inoculation, 71, 96. 
removal from Mt. Vernon, 72. 
73 note. 



